Location
San Diego, California
Presentation Date
28 May 2010, 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
Abstract
Wood (1973) provided analytical solutions for the response of a rigid wall retaining elastic uniform soil backfill of finite length subjected to harmonic base excitation. Wu and Finn (1999) proposed a modified shear beam solution and derived closed-form formulations for computing dynamic soil pressures under harmonic loading. However, for rigid walls retaining sloped backfills, analytical solutions are not available for computing seismic soil pressures against the walls. In the current study, seismic soil pressures on rigid walls retaining 2H:1V (27°) sloped backfills have been computed using a total of eight acceleration time histories recorded in past large earthquakes. These records were selected and linearly scaled to three levels of ground motions with a nominal PGA of 0.26g, 0.48g and 0.71g. Nonlinear time-history analyses were conducted using the computer program VERSAT-2D which uses a hyperbolic stress – strain model to simulate the hysteresis response of soil under cyclic loads. Soil pressure diagrams are shown in the paper for horizontal backfills (φ=32°), and for sloped backfills with loose sand (φ=32°) and dense sand (φ=40°) under the three levels of ground motions. A soil pressure coefficient, K0E, has been introduced to represent the total static and seismic pressures on a rigid (or non-yielding) wall. It is found that K0E varies from 1.1, 1.7 to 2.2 for horizontal backfills under ground motions of 0.26g, 0.48g and 0.71g, respectively. K0E increases to 2.7, 3.8 and 4.9 for the 27° sloped backfills under the same three levels of ground motions, respectively. The point of thrust is at about 0.47H above the base of wall for horizontal backfills, but for sloped backfills it increases to 0.53H for loose sand and 0.55H for dense sand.
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
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
Recommended Citation
Wu, Guoxi, "Seismic Soil Pressures on Rigid Walls with Sloped Backfills" (2010). International Conferences on Recent Advances in Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics. 15.
https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/icrageesd/05icrageesd/session06/15
Included in
Seismic Soil Pressures on Rigid Walls with Sloped Backfills
San Diego, California
Wood (1973) provided analytical solutions for the response of a rigid wall retaining elastic uniform soil backfill of finite length subjected to harmonic base excitation. Wu and Finn (1999) proposed a modified shear beam solution and derived closed-form formulations for computing dynamic soil pressures under harmonic loading. However, for rigid walls retaining sloped backfills, analytical solutions are not available for computing seismic soil pressures against the walls. In the current study, seismic soil pressures on rigid walls retaining 2H:1V (27°) sloped backfills have been computed using a total of eight acceleration time histories recorded in past large earthquakes. These records were selected and linearly scaled to three levels of ground motions with a nominal PGA of 0.26g, 0.48g and 0.71g. Nonlinear time-history analyses were conducted using the computer program VERSAT-2D which uses a hyperbolic stress – strain model to simulate the hysteresis response of soil under cyclic loads. Soil pressure diagrams are shown in the paper for horizontal backfills (φ=32°), and for sloped backfills with loose sand (φ=32°) and dense sand (φ=40°) under the three levels of ground motions. A soil pressure coefficient, K0E, has been introduced to represent the total static and seismic pressures on a rigid (or non-yielding) wall. It is found that K0E varies from 1.1, 1.7 to 2.2 for horizontal backfills under ground motions of 0.26g, 0.48g and 0.71g, respectively. K0E increases to 2.7, 3.8 and 4.9 for the 27° sloped backfills under the same three levels of ground motions, respectively. The point of thrust is at about 0.47H above the base of wall for horizontal backfills, but for sloped backfills it increases to 0.53H for loose sand and 0.55H for dense sand.
