Numerical simulation of the behaviors of test square for prehistoric earthen sites during archaeological excavation

During the process of archaeological excavation in the regions of Southeast China, collapse of test square usually occurs due to poor site-specific conditions. In this paper, the fast Lagrangian analysis of continua in three dimensions (FLAC3D) is employed to reveal the behaviors of test square. Taking the archaeological works in Liangzhu prehistoric earthen sites as the research background, the paper first introduces the geological setting, excavation procedure and monitoring scheme of the studied test square. Then, the deformation of four sides of the test square is modeled using FLAC3D. By comparison, it shows that the numerical results are consistent with the results from field monitoring. The result suggests that the numerical simulation can be effectively applied to representing the actual behaviors of the test square, which is helpful for determination of excavation scheme and stability evaluation of the test square during archaeological excavation.