Numerical Simulation for an Earthquake-Induced Catastrophic Landslide Considering Strain-Softening Characteristics of Sensitive Clays

The dynamic elasto-plastic finite element method is used to simulate an earthquake-induced catastrophic landslide that occurred during the 2011 Great Tohoku and Kanto Earthquake in Japan. In the analysis, a strain-softening constitutive model for sensitive clays originating from weathered pumice is applied, where the material parameters of the strain-softening materials have been determined based on the results of a series of laboratory tests involving undisturbed samples. The observed phenomena such as a long-distance traveling failure triggered by degradation of the apparent shear strength of sensitive materials in the slope are appropriately simulated by the analysis.