Simulation of Sliding Failure Occurred at Highway Embankment in 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake

In the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, the highway embankments were almost less damaged comparing with the past earthquakes in Japan. But the only one embankment close to the Naka Interchange at Joban Highway was damaged a little severely and remarkably because of two interesting phenomena. One phenomenon is the toe-sliding failure observed at the shallow soft base ground and the other one is one-side slope sliding failure. It can be seen that the increase in the degree of saturation at embankment body or the direction of the ground motion or the interaction between the strength of the base ground and the embankment body are involved in the stability of the embankment by modifying the phenomenon by analytical approach such as circular sliding method and dynamic response analysis. Through this research, some important lessons can be obtained for future seismic countermeasure of embankments.