Importance of viscous fluid characteristics in liquefaction induced lateral spreading analysis

Abstract This paper discusses the importance of viscous fluid characteristics in liquefaction induced lateral spreading analysis. A fluid dynamics based numerical method is outlined for the prediction of liquefaction induced ground flow. Pseudoplastic and Bingham models are used to represent the behavior of liquefied soil. A numerical method is used to verify the similitude law for liquefied ground flow. The numerical method reproduced the tendency of the experimental results as well as the proposed similitude law very well. Therefore, the similitude law holds, and thus, can be used as a fundamental information in the formulations of empirical equations for estimating ground displacement during liquefaction induced lateral spreading.