Aftershocks and the whole-life seismic performance of granular slopes

Shallow embankment slopes are commonly used to support elements of transport infrastructure in seismic regions. In this paper, the seismic performance of such slopes in non-liquefiable granular soils is considered, focusing on permanent movement and dynamic motion at the crest, which would form key inputs into the aseismic design of supported infrastructure. In contrast to previous studies, the evolution of this behaviour under multiple sequential strong ground motions is studied through dynamic centrifuge, numerical (finite-element, FE) and analytical (sliding-block) modelling, the centrifuge tests being used to validate the two non-physical approaches. The FE models focus on the specification of model parameters for existing non-linear constitutive models using routine site investigation data, allowing them to be used routinely in design and analysis. Soil-specific constitutive parameters are derived from shearbox and oedometer test data, and are found to significantly outperform existing empirical corr...

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