Behavior of Low Height Embankment Under Earthquake Loading

1. Introduction

Embankment is a widely used civil structure serving various purposes since a long time. It can be used as earthen dam, rock-fill dam, roadway, railway embankment etc. An embankment can be used for different purposes depending on which it may be said as low height or high embankment, steep slope or gentle slope embankment, homogeneous or composite embankment. According to the purpose of use, it gets subjected to several kind of forces and their combinations. An embankment can be subjected to the gravitational forces, sudden drawdown forces, seepage forces, seismic forces, artificial hazards etc. The dynamic analysis is comparatively new. As since the 1960 several earthquake events around the world caused damages to several major structures and the significance of the response of earthen structures under dynamic loading has become evident. In this particular study, the response of a low height embankment (roadway, railway) built over soft foundation clay followed by stiff clay layer will be assessed and analyzed. Since last few decades, the researchers across the world have developed several analytical, empirical, semi-empirical methods to analyze the slopes or embankment under seismic condition and determined the settlement, factor of safety etc.