Liquefaction-induced lateral displacement analysis for sloping grounds using long-duration and spectrally equivalent short-duration ground motions

This study investigates the effect of ground-motion duration on the liquefaction-induced lateral displacement (LD) of liquefiable sloping grounds. 72 one-dimensional gently liquefiable sloping grounds with different geometric and material configurations are modelled in OpenSees. Two ground motion suites, including 115 long-duration and 115 spectrally equivalent short-duration motions, are selected to conduct dynamic analyses on 72 liquefiable sloping grounds. Comparative results indicate that the median LD for the long-duration suite is 6.1-times larger than that of the short-duration suite. Cumulative absolute velocity (CAV) is identified as the preferable predictor variable for predicting the liquefaction-induced LDs. Two predictive models, both expressed as a function of CAV, slope gradient, and the relative density along with the thickness of the liquefiable layer, are then developed for LDs caused by the long- and short-duration ground motions, respectively. The newly developed LD models are then compared with two existing models to assess their performance in different earthquake scenarios. It is found that neglecting the long-duration effect of ground motions underestimates the LD hazard for sloping grounds subjected to long-duration earthquake scenarios. The proposed long-duration related model is suitable for estimating the liquefaction-induced LD of sloping ground sites susceptible to deformation under large-magnitude and long-distance earthquake scenarios.