Centrifuge modeling of seismic behavior of a slope in liquefiable soil

Two centrifuge tests were designed to improve the understanding the response of liquefied sandy slopes beyond initial liquefaction. A distinctive dilative behavior of the soil was-observed near the slope where static shear stresses are present. The corresponding drops in the piezometric records and simultaneous negative upslope spikes in the acceleration records were measured in the transducer raw data. This dilative response became stronger as the input acceleration increased and tends to limit the downslope accumulation and thus reducing the permanent lateral displacements. Therefore, the maximum permanent displacement was smaller in the model with the larger input motion, because it developed a stronger dilative response. The dilative response was not observed away from the slope, where no static shear stresses are present. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.