The authors performed some laboratory model experiments on faulting and various rock engineering structures subjected to thrust, normal and strike-slip faulting movements under dynamic condition. Several experiments were carried out to investigate the effect of faulting on the slopes, underground openings, bridges and its foundations, and embedded linear structures. Model experiments were carried out using breakable blocks and layers. The experiments showed that the faulting mode and discontinuity orientation have great affect on the failure mode of various structures.
Ground motion characteristics, deformation and surface breaks of earthquakes depend upon the causative faults. Their effects on the seismic design of engineering structures are almost not considered in the present codes of design although there are attempts to include in some countries (i.e. USA, Japan, Taiwan, Turkey (Aydan et al. 1999, 2009a,b,c).
The experimental device is developed amd used for investigating the effect of faulting under gravitational field. The orientation of faulting can be adjusted as desired (Ohta 2011; Ohta & Aydan 2010). The maximum displacement of faulting of the moving side of the faulting experiments was varied between 25 and 100mm. The base of the experimental set-up can model rigid body motions of base rock and it has a box of 780 mm long, 250 mm wide and 300 mm deep. This experimental device is used to investigate the effect of forced displacement due to faulting on rock slopes and underground openings. The displacement and accelerations were measured simultaneously.
Several experiments were carried out to investigate the effect of faulting on bridge and its foundations. Model experiments were carried out using either breakable blocks and layers or non-breakable blocks. The authors have been also performing some model experiments on the effect of faulting on the stability and failure modes of shallow undergound openings. In this study, the authors carried out some laboratory experiments to simulate the motions during normal and thrust faulting and their effects on model structures to investigate the effects of faulting due to earthquakes. They summarize the findings from this experimental study and their implications in practice.
