Based on the finite element method with a posterior error estimation and the Delaunay triangulation
an adaptive mesh scheme is set up to simulate the saturated sand behaviors when being compressed statically and when being liquefied during earthquakes. The bilinear recovered function
usually being used for quadrilateral elements in superconvergent patch recovery (SPR) error estimation
is confirmed to be available and reliable for triangular element mesh. In both the static and dynamic examples of saturated sand
the changing laws of deformation
strain
excess pore water pressure ratio
etc. due to the adaptive mesh calculation are maintained in the same trend as the normal finite element calculation. The displacement of the reference point is approaching to the exact value as the mesh is regenerated
so is the average relative error of the whole area. The suitable adaptation degree for an initial mesh is discussed and applied to the adaptive numerical simulation of the seismic liquefaction. Also
some improvement for the initial mesh is implemented in the Delaunay triangulation. This adaptive mesh scheme is proved to improve calculating efficiency