CHARACTERISTIC EMPIRICAL RELATIONSHIPS OF EARTHQUAKE SURFACE RUPTURE AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE FOR TUNNEL DESIGN

Seismic faults cause a great damage to tunnels in the seismic zone during earthquakes. Therefore, how to reduce seismic damage to tunnels has become a hot issue. Based on a large number of studies of the relationship between magnitude and fault rupture parameters, faults displacement, the empirical correlation between magnitude and fault rupture parameters, surface displacement of Donald L.Wells was further verified using the rupture parameters of 5.12 Wenchuan earthquake. The results showe that empirical validation of values obtained from the relationship between magnitude with surface rupture length, underground rupture, width and the average displacement, are closed to the actual fracture parameters of the Wenchuan earthquake, and indicate that these relationships can be used to estimate rupture parameters of earthquake and provide the best reference to tunnels passing potential faults of earthquake zone in the design and safety evaluation.