# Seismic Response of Aeolian Sand High Embankment Slopes in Shaking Table Tests
## 1 Introduction  
Deserts and sandy soil cover approximately 13% of China's land mass. To develop the economy and exploit mineral resources, it is imperative to develop the transportation network of this desert area. The desert expressway features a small fill volume, which can ensure the stability of the expressway structure and decrease costs. However, in this area with its particular terrain, a large fill volume is inevitable [1; 2]. It has been reported that the number of earthquakes in the desert regions of China have increased in recent years. Although most of these are small earthquakes that do not affect people's daily life, long-term sustained and high frequency small earthquakes can have unpredictable effects such as soil loosening, house collapse, and embankment deformation [3; 4; 5; 6]. Several desert highways in this area have been damaged to varying degrees due to frequent earthquakes, among which, the damage of high embankments is the most severe [7]. Therefore, it is critical to study the seismic response of aeolian sand high embankment slopes. The distribution of important deserts in China and the location of the relevant research is shown in Figure 1.  
Traditionally, the pseudo static analysis method has been used to analyze the seismic stability of embankments [8; 9; 10]. It is widely used for seismic design in current engineering specifications due to its brevity; however, with regard to cases where the stiffness of soil is obviously reduced or when liquefaction occurs during earthquakes, this method is not applicable. [PERSON] [11] (1965) presented an analysis method by computing permanent displacement, studying the relationship between permanent displacement and critical acceleration. This has been named the [PERSON]'s sliding block method. This method is well known and has been improved by many scholars [12; 13; 14; 15; 16; 17]; however, the [PERSON]'s sliding block method still includes rather crude pseudo static analysis assumptions, and is not suitable to study the deformation of soil with the maximum displacement at the centimeter level [18]. Numerical methods--such as the finite element method, Lagrangian element method, and DEM (discrete element method)--were also used by many scholars to study the seismic response of geotechnical structures. Many advanced constitutive models have been adopted and improved by scholars when using numerical methods [19; 20]. Examples are, the nonlinear viscoelastic model, th elastic-plastic model, and the boundary surface model [21; 22]. However, the finite element method and the Lagrangian element method are well-known methodologies for solving continuum problems exploiting a discrete approach [23]; therefore, they cannot be used to study the seismic response of aeolian sand high embankments with their poor continuity material. The DEM is particularly suitable for stress analysis of joint rock mass. Moreover, it can calculate the deformation and stress distribution of the soil, and it is the most appropriate numerical analysis method for the study of the seismic response of embankments. However, if there are too many particles and actual contacts during simulation, both the calculation speed and accuracy will decrease; therefore, it is not suitable for the simulation of high embankments. It is possible to study the dynamic response of the slope in laboratories under actual stress conditions due to the development of dynamic centrifuge tests and shaking table tests. These tests have been widely adopted by scholars to investigate the seismic response of embankments [24; 25; 26]. The gravitational field can be altered as expected in dynamic centrifuge tests so that the test model can better cater to the requirements of similarity relation [27; 28; 29; 30]. However, the carrying capacity of a dynamic centrifuge is extremely limited [31; 32], while the shaking table system can be implemented for large-scale model tests with various loading frequencies [33].