Chapter
Feb 22, 2024

Sliding Mass Period for Seismic Displacements of Spatially Variable Slopes

Publication: Geo-Congress 2024

ABSTRACT

Deterministic and probabilistic procedures for estimating seismic displacements of engineered and natural slopes depend on the uncertainty of the seismic yield coefficient (ky) and the initial fundamental period (Ts) of the potential sliding mass. However, inherent soil spatial variability within slopes can significantly contribute to the uncertainty in the potential sliding mass extent, which propagates to uncertainties in ky and Ts. This study investigates the influence of subsurface soil variability, as modeled by non-stationary spatial random fields of the undrained shear strength, on the resulting variability of ky and Ts for a hypothetical slope geometry. The random fields assume a lognormal distribution, with alternative assumptions for the mean, coefficient of variation, and horizontal correlation range. Pseudostatic stability analyses for determining ky and the associated sliding mass geometry were performed using the finite difference program FLAC. The Ts was evaluated using a mass-weighting scheme and considered the influence of alternative soil shear wave velocity assumptions. The results demonstrate important considerations for interpreting the variability of ky and Ts for deterministic and performance-based seismic displacement studies.

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REFERENCES

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Geo-Congress 2024
Pages: 351 - 360

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Published online: Feb 22, 2024

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Patrick C. Bassal, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE [email protected]
1Assistant Professor, Dept. of Civil, Environmental, and Geodetic Engineering, Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4153-2460. Email: [email protected]
Tyler J. Oathes, Ph.D., M.ASCE [email protected]
2Assistant Professor, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rutgers Univ., Piscataway, NJ. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3496-0080. Email: [email protected]

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