Keywords: seismic hazard, permanent deformations, fault rupture, slope stability, geosynthetics, reinforcement.

Over the last two decades geosynthetics have been effectively applied in various geotechnical, transportation, hydraulic and geoenvironmental projects. Nowadays, there are still continuous developments in the application fields and the improvement of the performance of these state-of-the-art engineering materials. Since reinforcement is one of the main functions that geosynthetics are intended for, it is evident that their contribution in the prevention of the development of potential instabilities that can be caused during a seismic event can be valuable.

Seismic hazard on engineering geostructures arise by the distress provided due to: (a) the propagation of seismic waves and the subsequent dynamic response, which is commonly referred as strong motion effects, and (b) the permanent deformations developed during an abrupt fault rupture. The devastating effect of seismic loading on geostructures, such as highway or railway embankments, earth dams and waste landfills, may be expressed either as a slope failure of the soil or waste mass or as excessive permanent deformations of the geostructure. It is evident that the socio-economical and environmental consequences related to a potential failure of such large-scale infrastructures are enormous and should be prevented. Moreover, very frequently many types of geotechnical works (waste landfills, retaining walls, etc.) include geosynthetic systems, which among others play an important role in the dynamic distress of the infrastructure. Therefore, geotechnical engineers should pay extra attention to this crucial issue in order to ensure the integrity of the whole system and particularly the geosynthetics.

With this perspective, taking advantage of the reinforcing effect of the geosynthetics the aforementioned failure modes may be substantially reduced or even avoided. This study aims to demonstrate the ability of the geosynthetics to be used as mitigation measures against earthquake effects on geostructures. For this purpose, the potential failure modes are initially identified utilizing the methods commonly employed for dynamic response and slope stability assessment. Parametric finite element analyses are conducted and the impact of the most important parameters on the issues examined is assessed. Several reinforcement scenarios are examined and analyzed following the same procedures. The efficiency of the geosynthetics on the prevention of slope instabilities and the reduction of the anticipated stress levels on the geostructures is highlighted. Results indicate that geosynthetics can mitigate the seismic hazard of large-scale geostructures and may provide a reliable reinforcement measure for various seismic design applications in geotechnical engineering practice.

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