Evaluation on safety of sea levees under earthquake condition

This study is to evaluate the safety of a sea levee under earthquake condition. The evaluation is performed by both theoretical analysis and numerical simulation, besides a case in field is adopted to verified the analysis and simulation. Since a sea levee is subjected a combined forces and stresses, such as, wave force, earth pressure, self-weight, pore water pressure, and forces induced form earthquake, the theoretical analysis may obtain a closed-form solution, however, the complicated field condition may not be included in the analysis. A software with finite element method is used to simulate the complicated conditions. The revetment of a sea levee which found on a thick deposit with saturated loose sand may collapse or slide soil liquefaction as deposit subjected by earthquake force. The results also revealed that the hazards caused by a earthquake are not damage of the levee itself. Instead, the flood due to the collapse of the levee structure may induce the major disasters.