Seismic permanent deformation of earth-fill hill

The seismic stability of earth-fill hill is one of the key problems in the process of design and construction, and has not been understood properly. The seismic permanent displacement of earth-fill hill is studied by means of the equivalent linear method and Newmark sliding block analysis. The influences of heights, average gradients and input ground motions on permanent displacement are investigated. When the slope is gentle, there are significant differences in size and sliding surface between the maximum displacement sliding mass and the most dangerous sliding block discriminated by the pseudo-static Bishop’s method. Finally, using the yield acceleration of earth-fill hill, a simple method to estimate the seismic permanent displacement of earth-fill hill is proposed.