SEISMIC SLOPE STABILITY ANALYSIS OF ASH EMBANKMENTS

Abstract

Huge quantity's of ash is being produced annually by thermal power plants as a by-product. Bulk utilization of this ash produced is possible in geotechnical engineering applications, like construction of highway embankments, raising of ash dykes and filling low lying areas. However, design and construction of such geotechnical structures particularly in active seismic regions requires thorough understanding of dynamic response of these structures. In this dissertation, dynamic response of a highway road embankment is studied under various possible static and seismic loading conditions. Influence of various earthquake ground motion I characteristics- (e.g. amplitude, duration and frequency content) on the dynamic response of the embankment is assessed. Effects of water stagnation and presence of weak sub-surface soil layers is also examined. An ash road embankment of height 10m initially designed as per the IS code of practice considering loading conditions appropriate_to the seismic zone IV, India are used in the studies. Synthetic ground motions are prepared for carrying out controlled studies. The effects of ground motion parameters such as amplitude and frequency of vibrations in the range of 0.lg to 0.3g and 1Hz to 5Hz respectively have been studied. Based on the study, it is found that response of highway embankments constructed with ash is satisfactory under various static and seismic loading' conditions.