Abstract:In the Chubu region,central Japan,two kinds of earthquakes are likely to occur with different duration characteristics:① the TonankaiTokai coupled earthquake,with duration longer than 100 s at a maximum acceleration of about 2.4 m·s-2;② an inland earthquakes due to active faults,with duration shorter than 20 s at a maximum acceleration of about 6.0 m·s-2.Saturated loose sand deposits are widely distributed over the low alluvial plain in this region which,therefore,have a high liquefaction potential.Based on the Biot theory for simulating coupled hydrodynamic behavior in saturated porous media,this study presents a numerical assessment of the seismic behavior of a river levee founded on liquefiable foundation soils under earthquake loading.Analysis is carried out by using an effective stressbased,fully coupled,finite element method,in which the behavior of the liquefiable sand is described by a cyclic elastoplastic constitutive model.The liquefaction responses of the river levee are compared between two different earthquakes.Numerical results show that the strong motion duration has a significant effect on the liquefaction behavior of the levee including excess pore water pressures,accelerations,and deformations.The longer ground motion may lead to much larger settlement of the river levee.