Numerical modeling of interaction between dip-slip fault and shallow foundation

Abstract

Many engineering structures have been destroyed due to differential displacements on the ground surface, resulting in the instability of foundations and structures. An Earthquake fault rupture may cause severe damages even to structures designed to be strong against dynamic excitations. This study investigates the interactions of shallow foundations with the faulting incident, and with soil, reinforced with geo-grids, for the cases of normal and reverse faulting. The results of the numerical studies were verified with the results of experiments conducted at the University of Dundee and the University of Waseda. The subroutine of the new behavioral model was developed and then applied in the numerical modeling. A comparison between the numerical and model test results showed good agreement between numerical and experimental results. Then, the foundation rotations and its separation from the soil during fault rupture, the location of the fault outcropping, the vertical displacement of the ground surface, and the effect of soil reinforced with geo-grids on the fault rupture path and surface displacement, some of them for the first time, were predicted and reported in this paper. The amounts of differential displacement (slope) and surface displacement at the surface were reduced when soil was reinforced with geo-grids. Finally, this research concludes with a few parametric studies.