It
has long been recognized that the most serious damage to underground
lifelines during an earthquake is caused by permanent ground deformation
(PGD) [e.g., O'Rourke, 1998]. It is not possible to model with accuracy
the soil displacement patterns at all potentially vulnerable locations.
Nevertheless, it is possible to set upper bound deformation effects
on buried lifelines by simplifying spatially distributed PGD as movement
concentrated along planes of soil failure. Figure 1 illustrates the
concept, which provides the basis for laboratory simulation of the
most severe PGD effects associated with surface faulting, liquefaction-induced
lateral spread, and landslides.
This work is supported primarily by the George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) Program of the National Science Foundation under Award Number CMS-0217366.
