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Soil Liquefaction — Layered Pore-Pressure Diffusion & Sand Boil (2D)

Interactive 2D side-view model of earthquake-induced soil liquefaction: a depth-resolved column of sand layers each builds excess pore pressure from its own local cyclic stress ratio (with real Seed-Idriss depth attenuation), the excess pressure diffuses between layers and vents through a free-draining surface as a sand boil, and a buried object responds to the locally computed effective stress at whatever depth it currently occupies.

Climate, Ecology & Environment2DModerate60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⇄ 3D version

This 2D companion to the 3D liquefaction sim replaces its single whole-column pore-pressure number with a real depth-resolved model: a 48-layer grid down the soil column, each layer accumulating excess pore pressure from its own local cyclic stress ratio computed with the genuine Seed & Idriss depth-reduction factor r_d(z) — the piece the 3D version explicitly simplifies away. Layers exchange pressure by diffusion exactly as in Terzaghi consolidation theory, and the free-draining surface lets that pressure vent upward as a visible sand boil, so you can watch liquefaction spread from wherever the shaking first overcomes a layer's resistance rather than seeing the whole column change state at once. A buried object then responds to the effective stress and residual strength computed at its own current depth, not a column average, so where it sits in the profile genuinely matters to when it breaks free.

⚙ Under the hood

Shake a depth-resolved 2D column of saturated sand: each of 48 layers builds excess pore pressure from its own local cyclic stress ratio (with the real Seed-Idriss depth-reduction factor), pressure diffuses between layers and vents through the free surface as a sand boil, and a buried object responds to the effective stress at its own current depth rather than a single column-wide number.

liquefactionearthquakegeotechnicalbuoyancypore-pressuresoil-mechanicssand-boilconsolidation

2D · HTML5 Canvas 2D · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install