Assessment of the Effect of Earthquake-Induced Displacement Field on the Response of a Building Located on a Landslide-Prone Slope

It is known that slope movements induced by earthquakes may be responsible for damages on structures and infrastructures interacting with the slope. Depending on its characteristics (e.g. mechanical and dynamic soil properties, morphology of the slope and landslide body, pore water pressure distribution), different seismic slope responses are expected during earthquakes, which may induce differential displacements beneath a structure located on its surface. In this study, a finite element (FE) numerical investigation is carried out to evaluate the permanent displacement fields induced by seismic actions and their effect on the seismic response of a multi-storey reinforced concrete (RC) building, located on a slope characterized by a pre-existing landslide mechanism. The study is conducted adopting an uncoupled approach, consisting in performing 2D FE geotechnical analyses of the slope including a simplified structure for evaluating the seismically induced permanent displacements and 3D FE detailed structural analyses of the RC building. The geotechnical simulations showed that accounting for the slope-structure interaction provides more realistic displacement fields at the base of the structure, while the structural analyses predicted larger inter-storey drift, mainly related to the horizontal displacements correlated to the activation of the landslide mechanism.