Examination of Simplified Displacement-Based Methods for Dynamic Analyses of Slopes

Accurate assessment of the stability of natural slopes and earth structures during earthquakes has become a critical aspect for the safe and cost effective design of many projects. Available methods for assessing the performance of slopes during earthquake shaking, in order from low to high complexity, include pseudo-static methods, displacement-based (Newmark-type) methods and numerical methods (finite element or discrete element methods). As an intermediately complicated and accurate approach, displacement-based methods produce a reliable index of slope performance under seismic loading through their predictive calculation of permanent earthquake-induced displacements. A wide variety of displacement-based approaches have been developed in an attempt to improve the accuracy of the early Newmark method. This paper reviews and compares the most recent simplified displacement-based methods for estimating seismically induced slope deformations. For each method, the assumptions, input parameters and applications are discussed and results for different earthquake scenarios are compared.