INDUSTRIAL APPLICATION Response and Modeling of Cantilever Retaining Walls Subjected to Seismic Motions

Abstract: A series of nonlinear, explicit finite differ-ence analyses were performed to determine the dynamic response of a cantilever retaining wall subjected to earth-quake motions. This article outlines the calibration and validation of the numerical model used in the analyses and comparisons are presented between the results from the finite difference analyses and results from simplified techniques for computing dynamic earth pressures and permanent wall displacement (i.e., Mononobe-Okabe and Newmark sliding block methods). It was found that at very low levels of acceleration, the induced pressures were in general agreement with those predicted by the Mononobe-Okabe method. However, as the accelerations increased to those expected in regions of moderate seismicity, the induced pressures are larger than those predicted by the Mononobe-Okabe method. This deviation is attributed to the flexibility of the retaining wall system and to the observation that the driving soil wedge does not respond monolithically, but rather responds as several wedges. Ad-∗To whom correspondence should be addressed