Dynamic elasto-plastic analyses of the sliding displacement of embankment during earthquake

Dynamic centrifuge test of an embankment and its numerical simulations are presented. In the test, the embankment consists of a mixture of clay and sand. The model ground underlying the embankment is made of clay. The horizontal acceleration is applied to the base of the ground. Analyses are done based on the 2D dynamic elasto-plastic finite element method. A newly proposed cyclic loading model, that simulates the G-gamma and h-gamma relations commonly observed in the soil element tests, is applied to the clay ground. The embankment is assumed to be an elasto-perfectly plastic material. The effect of large deformation is properly considered in the analyses. The time histories of acceleration and displacement observed in the centrifuge test are shown to be well simulated by the finite element analyses.