Investigation of physical and mechanical properties of Kutahya residental area's soils

An important part of the selected residential areas for urbanization in Turkey is located in the earthquake prone region, and until now, several destructive earthquakes, which have magnitude higher than 7 and result in heavy casualties, have occurred in these locations. The residential area of Kütahya and its vicinity is located in second degree earthquake zone according to earthquake zoning map of Turkey. Kütahya fault zone is situated in the southern part of the city at the foot of Yellice Mountain and extends parallel to the city settlement. In addition, the presence of Simav district in first degree earthquake zone, which is located in 100 km. away from the south-west part of Kütahya, and frequently occurring of earthquakes having significant magnitudes in this region, constitutes a major risk for Kütahya residential area. The new residential areas are required together with population growth due to different reasons and so the construction of buildings in Kütahya rapidly increases. In this study, considering the increase of construction process in Kütahya, in order to provide more secure and planned urbanization in this province, and to contribute to the creation of livable residential areas, performing a research based on physical mechanical properties of Kütahya soils is aimed.For this purpose, the existing reports containing data of 283 drillings implemented within the residential area of Kütahya were evaluated. In addition, field investigations were realized and samples were collected from different location in order to identify particularly current geotechnical problems and determine physical, index, consolidation and swelling properties soil units. The values of swelling parameters and their spatial distribution were determined by empirical approaches. All required corrections were applied to SPT-N data base to be used for liquefaction analyzes. In order to determine the liquefaction properties of Kütahya soils, the factor of safety (FL) against liquefaction and liquefaction potential index (IL) parameters were determined by considering the magnitude of the earthquake as 6.5 and 7.2. Liquefaction maps were prepared based on these two parameters to be used for the evaluation of liquefaction potential of Kütahya residential area. As a result of liquefaction analysis, ?very high? and ?high? liquefaction potential has been identified for some locations of Kütahya residential area.