Recent Studies on Seismic Analysis and Design of Retaining Structures

The studies on seismic analysis and design of retaining walls in the recent years have revolved around the wall performance in the near-source zones. Major developments include: (1) the conventional limit equilibrium approach is extended based on the multiple failure plane concept; (2) a set of design charts for evaluating residual horizontal displacement of a gravity wall on yielding foundation are developed based on the parametric effective stress analysis; (3) applicability of the effective stress analysis on the retaining wall performance is confirmed by the case history during Hyogoken-Nambu, Kobe, earthquake; (4) major earthquake motion parameters that govern the wall displacement through soil-structure interaction analysis are spectral intensity (damping factor-20% and integration over 1.0 to 3.0 seconds) and/or frequency components lower than about 2Hz, which is lower than the fundamental natural frequency of the wall-soil system at small strain shaking. These developments in the seismic analysis of retaining walls lead us toward the performance-based design of retaining walls