Distribution of Seismic Earth Pressures on Rigid Retaining Walls

Abstract eng:
The distribution of seismic earth pressures on rigid retaining walls is an important task in design. On the basis of the limit equilibrium approach and limit state analysis, this paper presents a solution to compute the seismic earth pressure on the back of a retaining wall. For this purpose, the equilibrium of forces acting on an element of the failed wedge is considered and the earth pressure on the wall is obtained using a mathematical procedure. In this study, the effects of both horizontal and vertical components of earthquake are taken into account using a pseudo-dynamic approach. The effect of phase differences in both shear and primary waves travelling through the backfill due to seismic excitation are also considered by entering the finite shear and primary wave velocities in the analysis. The results are provided in tabular and graphical non-dimensional forms and compared with pseudo-static method to highlight the realistic non-linearity of the seismic pressure distribution. 1

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