This action is for the purchase of a soils closed-loop testing system. The overall purpose is to improve the research capabilities of the soils laboratory in the Civil Engineering Department of the Illinois Institute of Technology. The proposed system is widely accepted as the standard in dynamic material testing. The device will be used to continue current research in the area of soil liquefaction. Two areas of interest are in soil liquefaction research. The first of these is the study of the dynamic liquefaction response of saturated partially cemented soils. The testing system will be used to develop a constitutive model that can describe the characteristics of these soils. The second research topic is in strain controlled testing for the evaluation of liquefaction potential. The principal investigators have the capability and institutional facilities to develop the proposed dynamic soil testing system. lt will provide and advanced capability for improving the understanding and prediction of earthquake-induced soil liquefaction.
