Dynamic behavior of railway embankment slope subjected to seismic excitation

To reveal the dynamic behavior of a railway embankment slope subjected to seismic excitation, a shaking table model test was performed on a 1:8 scale embankment slope. Different types of seismic wave of differing amplitudes were applied to study the dynamic behavior of the embankment slope, and white noise excitations were interspersed among the seismic waves to observe the changes of dynamic characteristics of the embankment slope. Residual deformation behaviors of the embankment slope were also investigated. The results of the tests show that the natural frequency of the embankment slope exhibits a decreasing trend and that the damping ratio exhibits an increasing trend. The embankment slope exhibits a significant amplification effect on the input acceleration, and the acceleration response differs greatly when subjected to different seismic excitations of differing spectrum characteristics. The filler of the embankment slope affects the changes of the spectrum characteristics of the seismic wave. The filler performs a filtering effect on high-frequency seismic waves and amplifies the energy of low-frequency seismic waves, especially when the frequency is close to the natural frequency of the embankment slope. A bidirectional excitation creates a greater acceleration response than a unidirectional excitation does. The seismic residual deformation of the embankment slope occurs under the seismic subsidence mode. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013