ABSTRACT
Seismic fragility of slopes has been commonly assessed without the input ground motions in a vertical direction. This study addresses the influence of the vertical component of the input ground motions on the seismic fragility using finite element simulations. We consider 9 slope geometries comprising a combination of three slope heights (10 m, 20 m, and 30 m) and three slope angles (20°, 30°, and 40°). A total of 450 earthquake recordings are collected from NGA-West2 database that contain two horizontal (300=2×150) and one vertical (150) components. Each horizontal component is coupled with the vertical component, resulting in two sets of the input ground motions that produce 300 permanent slope displacements for one slope model. We compute the seismic fragility curves of slopes for three damage states based on a probabilistic seismic demand model. Results show that the probabilities of the slope damage subjected to the vertical-horizontal components of the input ground motions are greater than those subjected to the solely horizontal component. It turns out that the vertical component of the input ground motion affects the seismic fragility curves of the slopes.
