Effect of Earthquake Motion on The Permanent Displacement of Embankment Slopes

Abstract

Permanent displacement of slopes is key data for designing the slope in performance-based seismic design. To estimate the permanent displacement of a slope, empirical as well as numerical methods should be adopted. However, the results of these methods are highly dependent on both stationary and nonstationary ground-motion characteristics. This paper aims to find the most influential nonstationary characteristics of earthquakes on the permanent displacement of slopes. Two different numerical methods, Newmark’s sliding-block and response-history analysis, are used for a total of 47 real earthquake records. The records are classified into three groups based on their event characteristics. They are spectrally matched before analysis to the target spectrum to eliminate the effect of stationary characteristics. The amount of permanent displacement obtained from the analyses is different for varying input motions. The intensity-based parameters, destructiveness potential factor, Arias intensity, and characteristic intensity play an important role on the permanent displacement of the slope. The results of this study are expected to yield judgment criteria for designers to select appropriate ground motion to evaluate the permanent displacement of slopes under seismic loading.