Prediction of earthquake-induced slope displacements considering 2D topographic amplification and flexible sliding mass

The Newmark approach is commonly used in predicting earthquake-induced displacements as an index of slope stability under seismic loading. However, this method is limited to a rigid block assumption in which the incident wave fails to interact with either the slope geometry or the sliding mass. In reality, ground motions are amplified near the slope crest due to the topographic effect or de-amplified at deep failure planes that consider the overlying deformable sliding mass. Therefore, a series of 2-dimensional (2D) dynamic analyses are performed to characterize this interaction behavior in this study. A general prediction model for slope response that considers both the topographic effect and flexible sliding mass is developed based on peak ground acceleration and mean period of incident ground motions conditioned on the natural period of sliding mass and the slope angle. Consequently, the predicted displacement of the 2D slope under seismic loading is achieved using the proposed prediction model of slope response in conjunction with the previously developed rigid displacement prediction model.