Context:

In recent years, the scientific community has discussed the possibility and effectiveness of decreasing the degree of soil saturation as a measure to improve the mechanical resistance of liquefiable saturated sands. For this reason, several methodologies have been proposed and tested to introduce gas bubbles into the soil. Furthermore, it is well known that decreasing the degree of soil saturation by inducing a small amount of air restricts the development of excess pore pressure and significantly increases the cyclic resistance of the soil.

Methodology:

An overview of air injection technology to induce a degree of partial saturation is provided by selecting high quality articles through a systematic literature review. In addition, a multiphase flow model is developed and a numerical analysis is carried out to describe the evolution, in time and space, of the desaturation of the soil, investigating numerically the length of the air front advance during injection.

Results:

It is recognized where future research related to air injection as a measure of liquefiable sandy soil improvement is moving. In addition, a parametric transient study is provided evaluating soil permeability, air injectivity, injection pressures, and desaturation rate of the region of interest.

Conclusions:

The study highlights findings and identifies researcher approaches, making observations, recognizing limitations and knowledge gaps. Finally, the numerical results obtained indicate that the evolution of desaturation is actively controlled by air injection pressure and soil permeability.