Investigation of boundary conditions for simulating normal fault propagation in centrifuge

The geotechnical centrifuge is a salient physical modeling tool for investigating various stressdependent problems such as fault propagation in soil due to earthquakes. One challenging aspect of designing centrifuge models for large soil displacements is in choosing and providing realistic model boundaries. To evaluate the influence of boundary conditions on propagation of a normal fault within a nine-layer soil model, two centrifuge tests were performed, one with a rigid boundary condition and one with a flexible boundary condition. The experimental results obtained are believed to be representative of two extreme conditions in the field. Thus, it is possible to estimate bounding values for ground deformation in the field by using these two types of boundary conditions in centrifuge model tests.