Institute for Data Analysis and Visualization

Earthquake events are among the most devastating catastrophes on Earth. Besides human casualties, they are also responsible for large damage to a variety of man-built objects. Civil engineering thus has significant interest in understanding effects of earthquakes. Induced dynamic motions will cause significant oscillations in stress and strain tensors inside 3D solids (soils, concrete and steel). These fluctuations in stresses and strains can result in failure of one of the components of the civil engineering object which might eventually lead to the complete failure and loss of life. We use tensor visualization techniques to study seismic behavior of concrete pile foundations embedded in soil. We show results and limitations of current and new techniques leading to a discussion of possible further research.