Discrete Element Analysis of Earthquake Fault Rupture-Soil-Foundation Interaction
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 145, Issue 9
Abstract
Earthquake fault rupture-soil-foundation interaction (FR-SFI) was simulated using the discrete element method (DEM) with irregularly shaped sphere-clusters to capture the three-dimensional nature of sand grains. High-performance computing simulations of free-field fault rupture and FR-SFI compared well with geotechnical centrifuge experiments in terms of shear rupture development, surface deformation, and foundation response. Micromechanical analyses of particle rotations, interparticle contacts, and void ratio distributions provided key insight into the mechanisms of FR-SFI. Particle rotations showed clearly where rupture surfaces developed, and the distributions of void ratios showed which rupture surfaces softened fully. The rupture surfaces for reverse fault displacement deflect systematically toward the hanging wall side of the foundation as its contact pressure increases. The shear rupture produced by normal faulting migrates from one path propagating toward the hanging wall side of the foundation to a second path propagating toward the footwall side of the foundation due to the presence of the foundation. DEM shows promise for evaluating earthquake FR-SFI.
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Acknowledgments
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant No. DGE 1106400. Any opinion, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF. Additional support was provided by the Faculty Chair in Earthquake Engineering Excellence at UC Berkeley. The Savio computational cluster resource was provided by the Berkeley Research Computing program at UC Berkeley. The Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE), which is supported by NSF grant number ACI-1548562, Bridges and Comet XSEDE resources under allocation TG-BCS170013, and SuperMIC and Stampede2 resources under allocation TG-TRA150025, were also used. Dr. Nicolas Oettle shared results and insights with us. Drs. G. Gazetas and I. Anastasopoulos shared the results of the centrifuge experiments conducted by Dr. Bransby and others as part of their collaborative research project.
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Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 145 • Issue 9 • September 2019
Copyright
©2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 26, 2018
Accepted: Feb 14, 2019
Published online: Jun 28, 2019
Published in print: Sep 1, 2019
Discussion open until: Nov 28, 2019
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