Seismic stability of geosynthetic-reinforced walls with variable excitation and soil properties: A discretization-based kinematic analysis

Seismic stability of vertical slopes is investigated using the discretization-based kinematic analysis, aiming at determining the geosynthetic reinforcement force required for preventing slope failure. The earthquake effect is characterized by spatial and time varying seismic inputs in sinusoidal functions. Two modes of seismic inputs are proposed for describing the 2D rather than 1D spatial effect. Further, the change in cyclic amplitude of the acceleration time-history is incorporated into kinematic analysis. The reinforcement force is formulated from the work rate-based balance equation. The pseudo-static/dynamic solutions are sought and compared. Comparisons are highlighted between the numerical results from three different seismic inputs.