Dilation Angle and Liquefaction Potential

Most of our understanding of the liquefaction phenomenon has come from laboratory cyclic loading tests. These tests indicate that the relative density of the sand is an important parameter controlling its resistance to liquefaction. In the field it is difficult to measure relative density and it is common practice to infer the relative density and liquefaction resistance of sand from penetration tests. The most commonly used relationship between penetration resistance and relative density is the one proposed by Gibbs and Holtz (5).