A coupled stick-slip-rotation model for earthquake-induced sliding displacement of slopes in Iran

This paper presents a semi-empirical model to predict earthquake-induced displacement of slopes, based on a coupled stick-slip-rotation (CSSR) analysis recently developed by the authors in a preceding study. The earthquake database selected for the analyses was constituted of 3319 records (including two horizontal components) of ground accelerations associated with 461 earthquakes that occurred in Iran. The presented predictive model was developed by the multiple regression analyses and represents sliding displacement as a function of the maximum velocity coefficient-time history (k _v-max), yield acceleration coefficient (k _y), slip length (L), and period ratio (T _s/T _m). The conditions of efficiency, sufficiency, and predictability of the seismic parameters have indicated that k _v-max is the best choice satisfying these conditions to be used in the predictive model compared with the other intensity measures. A semi-empirical equation has been proposed to assure the predictability condition of k _v-max. Performance of the presented semi-empirical model is evaluated by comparing its predictions with a few selected regional and global models recently proposed for sliding displacement of slopes.