Keywords: embankments, seismic slope stability, geosynthetics reinforcement, sliding, coupled SDOF models.

During recent decades the growth of the construction of geosynthetically reinforced structures has been increasing. In high seismicity areas a major hazard for such engineering structures is the accumulation of permanent deformation after an earthquake event. Various methods have been developed to assess the seismically induced deformations of geostructures. Newmark [1] proposed an efficient procedure to estimate the seismic displacements of earth dams and embankments, based on the sliding block analogy. The major assumption associated with the method is that the sliding block is infinitely rigid. In order to overcome the limitations of this assumption, modified procedures of the model have been proposed [2] accounting for the dynamic response of sliding mass and the development of the seismic accumulated slippage at the same time.

The aim of the current study is to assess the seismic response of geosynthetically reinforced soil structures taking into account the most important aspects of the problem at hand [3,4]. For this purpose, a parametric analysis was performed utilizing an analytical coupled SDOF model that can take into account the reinforcement forces with the aim of illustrating the beneficial role of the geosynthetics that are used to prevent the development of slope instability. The most important parameters of the problem at hand were taken into consideration in the parametric analysis that was performed, examining the impact of the material properties of the geosynthetics and the mechanical properties of the soil slope. The results were compared in terms of slip displacement for different values of the ratio of the yield acceleration to the maximum applied acceleration, as well as for various values of the tuning ratio. As expected the influence of the reinforcement on the permanent displacement accumulation pattern appears to be significant.

1

N.M. Newmark, "Effect of earthquakes on dams and embankments", Geotechnique, 15(2), 139-160, 1965. doi:10.1680/geot.1965.15.2.139

2

B. Westermo, F. Udwadia, "Periodic response of a sliding oscillator system to harmonic excitation", Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics, 11, 135-146, 1982. doi:10.1002/eqe.4290110111

3

S.B. Paulsen, "A numerical model for estimating seismic displacements of reinforced steep slopes", MSc Thesis, University of Washington, 2002.

4

V. Zania, Y. Tsompanakis, P.N. Psarropoulos, "Seismic displacements of landfills and deformation of geosynthetics due to base sliding", Geotextiles and Geomembranes Journal, 28, 491-502, 2010. doi:10.1016/j.geotexmem.2009.12.013

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