Buried Object Flotation in Liquefied Soil

Saturated sand behaves like a solid only as long as its grains carry the overburden through friction. This simulator shakes a 3D column of sand at a chosen earthquake intensity and tracks the real Seed–Booker excess pore-pressure curve cycle by cycle, showing effective stress collapse toward zero as the soil liquefies. A buried object of adjustable density then responds to plain Archimedes buoyancy once the soil's residual shear strength can no longer hold it — floating toward the surface if it is lighter than the liquefied soil, or sinking if it is denser, exactly as pipes, tanks and manholes are observed to do in real liquefaction events.