We performed a sensitivity study of the momentary liquefaction model proposed by Sakai et al. (1992), in order to estimate the importance of liquefaction processes in the possible burial of a mine in a sandy bed. For this specific applications, we did not restrict to the long wave approximation and took into account the effect of water depth variations. The conditions that are likely to occur in the field, were examined and used during the sensitivity study. From this study, we determined the critical conditions for initiating momentary liquefaction, the depth of the liquefied layer and the depth of mine burial. It pointed out the importance of each input parameter, among which are: the gas content inside the soil, the porosity, the permeability, the shear modulus and the Poisson ratio of the solid skeleton of the soil, the water depth, the wave height and the wave period. The gas content proved to be the main parameter controlling the occurrence of momentary liquefaction. The depth of the liquefied layer increases rapidly when the critical value of the gas content is exceeded.
Many studies report observations of the burial of marine objects of different kinds. Shoreline protective structures or armor blocks placed on French beaches are subjected to gradual settling which is still not clearly understood. For military purposes, focus has also been placed in recent years on mine burial phenomena. Various processes have been identified that can produce mine burial: scour produced by current or waves, bed liquefaction, impact of the mine on the soil or bedform migration. The present study was conducted in order to determine the conditions for which mine burial resulting from the momentary liquefaction of a sandy bed can occur.
