The Effect of the Vertical Acceleration on Stability Assessment of Seismically Loaded Earth Dams

Abstract In the assessment of slope stability, the vertical component of acceleration is commonly neglected. However, signal analyses performed on a large number of acceleration time histories have revealed that the vertical peak ground acceleration can be as high as the horizontal one. In this paper, a method of slope stability analysis regarding the vertical component of acceleration is proposed. It considers a rigid body system affected by the acceleration time histories in both horizontal and vertical directions. In a general case, the strength of the contact between acceleration components is time dependent. Parametric analysis was performed on the basis of cyclic harmonic loading, assuming a safety criterion in the form of permanent displacement. The results, for both harmonic and real acceleration time histories, were compared with the results of the commonly used Newmark’s sliding block approach, which revealed significant differences in permanent displacements calculated by the two methods.