Analysis of Rigid Retaining Walls During Earthquakes

Retaining walls experience changed pressures and undergo displacements as well during earthquakes. Both the questions have been discussed in detail in this paper. Increments in active earth pressures have been correlated with peak ground velocity and a method to compute seismic coefficient to be used in the Mononabe method has been proposed. The question of point of application of the dynamic increment has also been examined in detail. There are three methods to compute displacements of rigid retaining walls, a) based on Newmark\u27s approach of a sliding block, b) computation of translation only and c) computation of displacements due only to rotation of the wall. All three methods have been reviewed and their limitations brought out. The questions of dynamic passive pressures, pressures on basement walls, and effect of saturation and submergence of fills need more studies. Also, there is a need to monitor behavior of walls during earthquakes and organize possibly full scale tests on test walls