Simplified relationships for estimating seismic slope stability

Eurocode 8 addresses seismic slope stability analysis with reference to limit state design, specifying a 50% re-duction of the peak horizontal inertia force of a potentially sliding mass. Such a coefficient has been shown to depend on several factors, including soil deformability and the frequency content of the seismic action. In this paper the reduction coefficient is expressed with reference to the above factors and compared to EC8 provisions for all soil classes. A simplified design procedure is then suggested by referring to updated correla-tions based on the Newmark sliding block model, including the influence of amplitude, duration and mean pe-riod of the ground motion on the predicted displacement. The reduction coefficient is further generalised to account for the slope ductility, i.e. the capability of sustain prescribed threshold displacements. The whole procedure has been calibrated through analyses carried out using acceleration time histories, selected from a database of records of Italian seismic events, on typical subsoil layering pertaining to the EC8 classes, also adopted by the Italian seismic Code.