Fault induced permanent ground deformations: Experimental verification of wet and dry soil, numerical findings’ relation to field observations of tunnel damage and implications for design

Few building codes contains provisions fault surface ruptures and accompanying soil deformations which constitutes a great risk to human lives, buildings and infrastructure. A numerical and experimental comparison show a fair agreement of result. Analysis of “real” scale show the how water increases the incompressibility of wet soil causing shear deformations to become larger and conjugate ruptures to appear for reverse faults. Field observations and numerical analysis indicates that horizontal compression of soil surrounding underground structures should be taken into account in design.