Application of Hilbert-Huang Transform to the analysis of the landslides triggered by the Wenchuan earthquake

A steep rock hill with two side slopes located at DK30+256 of National Road 213 was used as a prototype for analysis. The full process from initial deformation to sliding of the slope during ground shaking was simulated by using a new Continuum-based Discrete Element Method. During the earthquake, when shaking amplitudes were lower, the stress concentration points firstly appeared at the top of the slip mass, and then some tension failure points appeared, followed by shear failure points. At the same time, both the instantaneous frequencies of accelerations in the bedrock and that in the slip mass basically stayed in two different ranges. The energy transmittance coefficients of the sliding surface also stayed in a high range. As the ground shaking lasted, the number of failure points gradually increased until landslide occurrence. The instantaneous frequencies of accelerations in the slip mass and the energy transmittance coefficients of sliding surface gradually decreased, and both finally converged to a lower range. And then, the reasons triggering landslides are analysis in the joint time-frequency domain using Hilbert-Huang Transform, as follows: the differences of distribution and dissipation of the earthquake energy and the inconsistency of movements between the slip mass and the bedrock were the two major influence factors.