ABSTRACT
In the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake, serious damage due to great seismic loadings and subsequent tsunami occurred widely in Japan. It has been also reported that road embankments in Tohoku expressway play an important role to evacuate from tsunami (see Photo 1). After that, many evacuation places have been constructed in other expressways in Japan. This paper aims at clarifying wave erosion mechanism and failure of volcanic embankments subjected to cyclic loadings such as seismic loadings. A series of model tests was performed on model volcanic embankments by using a cyclic loading and a wave paddle systems; especially the effects of initial water content and compaction conditions on wave erosion mechanisms were presented herein.
