Location

San Diego, California

Presentation Date

26 May 2010, 4:45 pm - 6:45 pm

Abstract

During a strong earthquake, passive earth pressure can provide resistance to excessive displacements along bridge abutments and pile caps. To account for this contribution, the force-displacement relationship is required, in addition to the peak resistance value. Experiments were performed at the University of California, San Diego to record the passive earth pressure force-displacement relationship behind a 1.7 meter tall vertical wall section. The experimental configuration of the soil container and wall system is described first. Backfill consisting of dense well-graded silty sand was placed in the soil container which measured 5.6 meters long, 2.9 meters wide and 2.15 meters deep. A finite element (FE) model is calibrated next, on the basis of this experimental response. FE analysis is then employed to compute the backfill resistance considering a range of representative backfill soils and depths. Results from these simulations help to illustrate the significant dependence on soil type and supported backfill depth on the passive force-displacement response. Calibrated hyperbolic model parameters are provided to represent the simulated passive resistance for use in practical applications.

Department(s)

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering

Meeting Name

5th International Conference on Recent Advances in Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics

Publisher

Missouri University of Science and Technology

Document Version

Final Version

Rights

© 2010 Missouri University of Science and Technology, All rights reserved.

Creative Commons Licensing

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Document Type

Article - Conference proceedings

File Type

text

Language

English

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Passive Earth Pressure Force-Displacement Relationships

San Diego, California

During a strong earthquake, passive earth pressure can provide resistance to excessive displacements along bridge abutments and pile caps. To account for this contribution, the force-displacement relationship is required, in addition to the peak resistance value. Experiments were performed at the University of California, San Diego to record the passive earth pressure force-displacement relationship behind a 1.7 meter tall vertical wall section. The experimental configuration of the soil container and wall system is described first. Backfill consisting of dense well-graded silty sand was placed in the soil container which measured 5.6 meters long, 2.9 meters wide and 2.15 meters deep. A finite element (FE) model is calibrated next, on the basis of this experimental response. FE analysis is then employed to compute the backfill resistance considering a range of representative backfill soils and depths. Results from these simulations help to illustrate the significant dependence on soil type and supported backfill depth on the passive force-displacement response. Calibrated hyperbolic model parameters are provided to represent the simulated passive resistance for use in practical applications.