| In his several years of professional engineering practice, the author encountered three building structures retaining earth primarily of one side and exhibiting severe signs of structural distress, large lateral movements away from the retained soil mass, and even failure of primary structural elements. All three structures were subjected to large temperature variations due to the absence of a building envelope or of temperature control.;A survey of the literature shows that, aside from jointless bridges, which abutments retain earth and are subject to thermal movements transmitted through the bridge deck, the study of the behavior of RFERS received no attention. As a result, this dissertation is intended to establish an introductory study of the behavior of RFERS through the investigation of the effects of the soil-structure interaction generated primarily by thermal movements on the retained soil mass and on the stresses developed in the retaining structure.;A full scale four story, in service, reinforced concrete rigidly framed parking structure, with a basement, was therefore instrumented and monitored over a period of several years via eight (8) vibrating wire displacement transducers and twelve (12) electrolytic tiltmeters connected to a datalogger, which recorded movements and temperature measurement hourly. Additionally, a numerical analysis of the instrumented structure was performed, as well as a significant number of numerical parametric analyses of single and multistory RFERS.;The findings of the instrumentation and monitoring of the in-service building, together with the results of the numerical analyses, reveal that, depending on the actual and relative stiffness of the retained soil mass and that of structural frame, the lateral earth pressure developed during thermal expansion in the soil can reach magnitudes several times larger than those determined using the classical earth pressure theories. The corresponding stresses developed in the structural elements of the RFERS can correspondingly reach larger magnitudes as well. Additionally, a nearly perpetual lateral displacement away from the retained soil mass is found to occur at the free end of the RFERS leading to unacceptable serviceability problems of the structural and architectural components attached to the frames. |
