Earthquake-Induced Deformations of Partially Saturated Embankments

The amount of water in soil plays very important role in defining its shear strength. Thus, when considering partially saturated slopes subjected to earthquake-induced ground shaking, it is important to quantify how such slopes respond to the induced dynamic stresses. For this purpose, undrained cyclic triaxial tests were performed on decomposed granite soil in order to quantitatively investigate the effects of degree of saturation and initial static shear stress on its earthquake response characteristics. The experimental results obtained were then used in conjunction with pseudo-static slope stability analysis and modified Newmark sliding block model to estimate the deformation of embankments which were under different degrees of saturation. The example calculations clearly showed the effect of saturation on the magnitude of seismic-induced displacements of embankments.