SPH Simulation for Large Deformation of Ground Surface Caused by Faulting

Abstract

Once a large deformation appears on the ground surface due to faulting during an earthquake, it may cause severe damage to infrastructure systems. A numerical simulation method that provides accurate prediction on the deformation of the ground surface is very useful for examining the performance of infrastructure systems subjected to a deformation of surrounding ground. The Finite Element Analysis (FEA), which is popular for practical engineers, would be applied to this problem. However, there are some difficulties on dealing with a discontinuity of fault displacement and, therefore, its application is still limited. In the present study, we employed the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method that requires no predefined computational mesh. A new computational model was introduced into the SPH for prediction of surface dislocation on the ground. The surface dislocation evaluated by the SPH with the developed computational model showed good agreement with our experimental results.