The Seismic Earth Pressure On Rigid Retaining Walls Under Various Modes Of Movement

A retaining wall is a kind of structure to prevent the collapse of soil, which is widely utilized in soil slope retaining for hydraulic engineering, building engineering, highway railway engineering and so on. The damage of the retaining wall will affect the normal use and its functioning, but gives rise to the instability of the slope. The seismic damage of retaining walls indicates that the destruction can cause the collapse of bridges, the damage of roads, and the traffic interruption. Thus, the research of the seismic pressure of soil for retaining walls under seismic loading is of great significance for the seismic design of retaining walls. Although the study of earth pressure has a history of more than200years, the study of seismic earth pressure of retaining walls started late after the8.3-magnitude Great Kanto earthquake in1923in Japan. During the following years, many experts and scholars at home and broad carried out a great amount of theoretical and experimental research at this topic and put forward a lot of theories and approaches. These served as solid references for the seismic design of retaining walls. Due to the great destructive effects of earthquake and the uncertainty of so many elements, the study of seismic earth pressure of retaining walls remains one of the most significant subjects in earthquake structural engineering and geotechnical engineering.Based on reasons above, a sound approach was needed considering the seismic earth pressure of rigid retaining walls. This could be used as the guideline for the design and construction, which would be beneficial to the design safety, construction safety and cost control.On the basis of the hypothesis of the Mononobe-Okabe theory, the horizontal level analysis was utilized to study the seismic earth pressure of rigid retaining walls under varied displacement modes:the translation(T)mode, movement modes of rotation around base(RB)and rotation around top(RT). The chart was formed by computation software, the theoretical formula was put forward which the earth pressure distributes along the height of the wall. Meanwhile, the distribution of the seismic earth pressure and total lateral forces and the applied points under different displacement modes were analyzed. The validity of the analysis of seismic earth pressure on rigid retaining walls was enhanced through this research.