acceleration amplification and settlement behaviors of earth-filled embankments with deteriorated core during seismic waves

In this study, centrifuge model tests were conducted in two earth-filled embankments with deteriorated core and having different heights (high and low height embankment is named as case 1 and case 2, respectively) at a scale of 1/60. acceleration amplification and deformation behaviors observed through centrifuge model tests were compared with numerical analysis results. in both cases, all the peak amplifications were monitored at the crest portion. this phenomenon is considered to be due to the decreased stiffness of the embankment as the saturation increases via deteriorated core portion. in addition, the centrifuge model test results suggest that case 1 (embankment with high height) does not satisfy the settlement design criteria (within 1% of the dam height). in both cases, the settlements due to the long-period seismic waves are almost double that of the short-period waves. liqca-sf program was used to simulate the dynamic behaviors of the embankments with deteriorated core. the numerical analyses yield results comparable to the test results with some minor discrepancies. in general, the settlement values from the numerical calculations are about 1.1–1.5 greater than that from the test results. in addition, the acceleration amplification behaviors from test and analysis results corroborate with each other. this study concluded that the high height embankment manifests higher values of acceleration amplification and settlement at similar levels of input accelerations than the low height embankment, suggesting the necessity of inspection and reinforcement of embankment, if required