Self-weight and seismic instability of a Qin Terracotta Army horse using finite element analysis
This study utilizes finite element analysis on a 3D-scanned model of a Qin Terracotta Army horse to demonstrate that while self-weight and frequent earthquakes cause minimal damage, rare earthquakes induce global sliding and overturning instability, with friction and ground motion type significantly influencing the response but shell thickness variations having negligible impact on the dominant failure modes.