Objective Excessive deformations of level ground caused by earthquakes are of great concern for civil engineering works, human lives and the environment. Such ground deformations are usually associated with liquefaction, i.e. a decrease in strength caused by the increase in pore water pressures in saturated cohesionless materials during earthquake ground motion. Much earthquake damage caused by liquefaction-induced excessive displacements can be mitigated by soil improvement methods, thus limiting the associated economic and social problems. Unfortunately, large scale application of the more common soil improvement methods is often avoided because of excessive costs of deep methods and incomplete understanding of potential benefits of other methods. This leads to potentially catastrophic consequences from earthquakes. For this reason preloading is particularly attractive, because, as it is applied from the surface, it can overcome the restriction of prohibitive costs. The goal of this research is to develop a cost-effective method, based on preloading, to reduce seismic liquefaction susceptibility and the associated risk to buildings that may cause many fatalities. Verify and study the method by a field study and develop procedures to estimate improvement and risk mitigation for new sites. Towards this goal the following major tasks will be performed: 1. Study and verify the method by a field preload test 2. Study of the effect of preloading on the cyclic soil strength by elaborate laboratory testing 3. Collect and analyze in-situ test results before and after the field application of preloading 4. Analyze the effect of preloading on the seismic risk of buildings and other structures on liquefaction-susceptible sites by elaborate numerical analyses 5. Propose rules for new sites based on the above Fields of science engineering and technologycivil engineeringstructural engineeringearthquake engineering Programme(s) FP7-SME - Specific Programme "Capacities": Research for the benefit of SMEs Topic(s) SME-1 - Research for SMEs Call for proposal FP7-SME-2010-1 See other projects for this call Funding Scheme BSG-SME - Research for SMEs Coordinator STAMATOPOULOS AND ASSOCIATES LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY - GEOTECHNICAL AND EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERS EU contribution € 22 248,00 Address ISAVRON STREET 5 11471 ATHINA Greece See on map Activity type Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments) Administrative Contact Konstantinos Stamatopoulos (Dr.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data Participants (4) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all A.L.T.E.A. & GEOSTUDIO 2000 Albania EU contribution € 224 426,00 Address RRUGA E KAVAJES BREND MJET MESIMORE TIRANA See on map Activity type Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments) Administrative Contact Skender Allkja (Mr.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data GEOSTAND ETERIA GEOTEHNIKON ERGON EREVNON YPEDAFOUS GERASIMOS LOUKATOS & SIA EE Greece EU contribution € 231 455,00 Address Megaloupoleos str. 46 173 43 Aghios Dimitrios ATHENS See on map Activity type Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments) Administrative Contact George Vatsellas (Mr.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data Instrumentation Testing & Monitoring Limited United Kingdom EU contribution € 86 035,00 Address Bell Lane TN221QL Uckfield See on map Activity type Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments) Administrative Contact Andrew Small (Mr.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data CENTRALE RECHERCHE SA France EU contribution No data Address Rue Jean Goujon 8 75008 PARIS See on map Activity type Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments) Administrative Contact Philippe Dubeaux (Mr.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data