Seismic Response of Steep Slopes in Cemented Soils
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical Engineering
Volume 109, Issue 2
Abstract
Cemented soils are characterized by their ability to stand in very steep natural and man‐made slopes which are prone to sudden failures during earthquakes. Because of the hazard posed by such slope failures in many parts of the world, a program of field observations and finite element analyses was carried out to evaluate the seismic response to the steep slopes in cemented soils. The results indicate that failures of steep slopes in cemented soils will occur in moderate to severe earthquakes. The failures of vertical or near vertical slopes are apparently initiated by tensile failure in the upper parts of the slopes. The failures of moderate (less than 70°) slopes are likely to be slides parallel to the slope. Both types of failure are generally shallow, involving 2 m–5 m of material. Finite element analyses also show that the important parameters con trolling stresses and accelerations in steep slopes are the slope angle, the max imum input acceleration, and the ratio of the natural period of the deposit to the dominant period of the earthquake.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
1.
Bachus, R. C., Clough, G. W., Sitar, N., Shafii Rad, N., Crosby, J., and Kaboli, P., “Behavior of Weakly Cemented Soil Slopes under Static and Seismic Loading Conditions, Vol. II,” The John A. Blume Earthquake Engineer ing Center, Report No. 52, Stanford University, Stanford, Calif., July, 1981, 247 pp.
2.
Bonilla, M. G., “Geologic Observations in the Epicentral Area of the San Francisco Earthquake of March 22, 1957,” Special Report No. 57, California Division of Mines, 1957, pp. 25–37.
3.
Boore, D. M., “A Note on the Effect of Simple Topography on Seismic SH Waves,” Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, Vol. 62, No. 1, 1972, pp. 275–284.
4.
Clough, G. W., Sitar, N., Bachus, R. C., and Shafii Rad, N., “Behavior of Cemented Sands under Static Loading,” Journal of the Geotechnical Engineering Division, ASCE, Vol. 107, No. GT6, Proc. Paper 16319, June, 1981, pp. 799–817.
5.
Dobry, R., Oweis, I., and Urzua, A., “Simplified Procedures for Estimating the Fundamental Period of a Soil Profile,” Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, Vol. 66, No. 4, Aug. 1976, pp. 1293–1321.
6.
Harp, E. L., Wilson, R. C., Wieczorek, G. F., and Keefer, D. K. “Landslides from the February 4, 1976 Guatemala Earthquake: Implications for Seismic Hazard Reduction in the Guatemala City Area,” Proceedings of the Second In ternational Conference on Microzonation, San Francisco, Calif., 1978, pp. 353–366.
7.
Idriss, I. M., “Finite Element Analysis for the Seismic Response of Earth Banks,” Journal of the Soil Mechanics and Foundations Division, ASCE, Vol. 94, No. SM3, Proc. Paper 5929, May, 1968, pp. 617–636.
8.
Idriss, I. M., and Seed, H. B., “Response of Earth Banks during Earth quakes,” Journal of the Soil Mechanics and Foundations Division, ASCE, Vol. 93, No. SM3, Proc. Paper 6232, May, 1967, pp. 61–82.
9.
Kovacs, W. D., Seed, H. B., and Idriss, I. M., “Studies of Seismic Response of Clay Banks,” Journal of the Soil Mechanics and Foundations Division, ASCE, Vol. 97, No. SM2, Proc. Paper 7878, Feb., 1971, pp. 441–445.
10.
Lawson, A. C., “California Earthquake of April 18, 1906,” Publication No. 87, Report of the State Earthquake Investigation Committee, Carnegie Insti tution of Washington, Washington, D.C., 1908.
11.
Lee, K. L., and Chan, K., “Number of Equivalent Significant Cycles in Strong Motion Earthquakes,” Proceedings of the International Conference on Microzonation for Safer Construction, Research and Application, Seattle, Wash., 1972, pp. 609–627.
12.
Lysmer, J., Udaka, T., Tsai, C. F., and Seed, H. B., “FLUSH—A Computer Program for Approximate 3‐D Analysis of Soil‐Structure Interaction Prob lems,” Report No. 75‐30, Earthquake Engineering Research Center, Univer sity of California, Berkeley, California, Nov., 1975.
13.
Seed, H. B., and Idriss, I. M., “Rock Motion Accelerograms for High Mag nitude Earthquakes,” Report No. 68‐7, Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, Calif., Apr., 1969.
14.
Seed, H. B., and Idriss, I. M., “Soil Moduli and Damping Factors for Dy namic Response Analyses,” Report No. 70‐10, Earthquake Engineering Re search Center, University of California, Berkeley, Calif., 1970.
15.
Sitar, N., and Clough, G. W., “Behavior of Slopes in Weakly Cemented Soils under Seismic Loading,” Proceedings of the 2nd U.S. National Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Stanford, Calif., 1979, pp. 1006–1015.
16.
Sitar, N., Clough, G. W., and Bachus, R. C., “Behavior of Weakly Cemented Soil Slopes under Static and Seismic Loading Conditions, Vol. I,” Report No. 44, The John A. Blume Earthquake Engineering Center, Stanford University, Stanford, Calif., June, 1980, 160 pp.
17.
Terzaghi, K., and Peck, R. B., “Soil Mechanics in Engineering Practice,” 2nd ed., John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, N.Y., 1967, pp. 417–418.
18.
Yamanouchi, T., and Murata, H., “Brittle Failure of a Volcanic Ash Soil ‘Shirasu’,” Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Vol. 1, 1973, pp. 495–500.
19.
Yamanouchi, T., Gotoh, K., and Jurata, H., “Stability of Cut Slopes in a Pumice Soil Deposit with Particular Reference to Tensile Failure,” Proceedings of the Third Australia‐New Zealand Conference on Geomechanics, Vol. 2, 1980, pp. 115–120.
20.
Yamanouchi, T., Michinaga, R., Gotoh, K., and Murata, H., “Studies of Cut‐Off Slopes in a Pumice‐Flow Soil Deposit and their Applications to the Design Standards for an Expressway,” Proceedings of the Ninth International Con ference on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Case History Volume, 1981, pp. 371–430.
21.
Youd, T. L., and Hoose, S. N., “Historic Ground Failures in Northern California Triggered by Earthquakes,” U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 993, Washington, D.C., 1978, 177 pp.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Geotechnical Engineering
Volume 109 • Issue 2 • December 1983
Pages: 210 - 227
Copyright
Copyright © 1983 ASCE.
History
Published online: Dec 1, 1983
Published in print: Dec 1983
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.