An Improved Method for Estimating Earthquake-Induced Permanent Displacement of Bedding Rock Slopes

An improved method for fast and reasonable estimation of seismically induced permanent displacement of bedding rock slopes is proposed in this study. The proposed method introduces the pseudo-dynamic seismic force to account for the amplification effect induced by the slope topography. In addition, real-time updates of the tangential-normal coupling forces on the sliding surface during seismic excitations are implemented. The feasibility and adaptability of the proposed method are verified through a comparison with existing methods. Additionally, the differences between the earthquake-induced displacements calculated using the proposed method and the Newmark method are analyzed using 171 strong ground motion records as input excitations. A parametric sensitivity analysis shows that permanent displacement is significantly influenced by the friction angle of the joint \(\phi\) $\varphi$ , amplitude of the input acceleration \(P_0\) $P_0$ , dip angle of the slope failure plane \(\beta\) $\beta$ , and slope height \(H\) $H$ . Finally, a set of landslide probability maps is obtained, and a landslide probability estimation procedure for slopes is recommended, which provides a convenient way to preliminarily evaluate the seismic stability of bedding rock slopes.