Numerical Approach to Model Near Field Fault Normal Ground Motions In Reverse Fault Scenario

Abstract

Widespread damage caused by some recent earthquakes has posed many new newlinechallenges to the research community to study near fault motion and its effects on the ground newlinesurface. Earthquakes in different geological regions show drastic variations in their effects, newlinesuch as large surface upliftment/displacements of soil deposits and distinctly different near newlinefault ground motions in contrast to the far field ground motions. Numerous researchers newlinestudied this phenomenon through experiments and tried to establish relationships between newlinevarious parameters of soil and resulting surface ground motion characteristics. Carrying out newlinethe experiments to understand such behaviour itself was difficult, because of complexities newlineinvolved in replicating the exact site conditions, considering all the necessary parameters of newlinesoil deposit and underlying bedrock. Many experiments of high precision are to be conducted newlineto establish relationship between the ground motion and various parameters such as width of newlineaffected zone, soil properties, thickness of deposit and dip angle of fault. Moreover, shapes newlineand locations of the surface rupture and its propagation through the soil deposit before newlinereaching the ground surface, are important in city planning, especially in the design of critical newlinestructures that may be located near the zone of faulting. Numerical modelling allows newlineinvestigation of effect of a number of aspects of the fault rupture propagation, which may be newlinedifficult to obtain from earthquake case histories or from experiments conducted on physical newlinemodels. Additionally, the sparse coverage of recording stations limits the ability to capture newlineground motions close to fault ruptures. Therefore, numerical simulation of near fault ground newlinemotions is necessary to understand the severity of near fault ground motion in future newlineearthquakes. newline In this thesis, the numerical method called Applied Element Method is explained newlinealong with its application in the fault motion analysis. Since the problem is related to the fault newlinerupture propagation, a method is nee