Seismic response of flexible cantilever retaining walls with dry backfill

Failure of retaining walls during earthquakes has occurred many times in the past. Although significant progress has been made in analysing the seismic response of rigid gravity type retaining walls, considerable difficulties still exist in the seismic-resistant design of the flexible cantilever type of retaining walls because of the complex nature of the dynamic soil–structure interaction. In this paper the seismic response of cantilever retaining walls with dry backfill is simulated using centrifuge modelling and numerical modelling. It is found that bending moments on the wall increased significantly during an earthquake. After the end of base shaking, the residual moment on the wall was significantly higher than the moment under static loading. The numerical simulation is able to model quite accurately the main characteristics of acceleration, bending moment, and displacement recorded in the centrifuge test.     

Performance of flexible retaining walls supporting dry cohesionless soils under cyclic loads

A finite element model is proposed for studying the seismic response of a flexible retaining wall/soil system. The model accounts for nonlinear hysteretic soil behaviour, and also for the increase in lateral stresses and settlement related to grain slip caused by cyclic loads. The response computed by the proposed method was compared with responses recorded at the Cambridge centrifuge facility, and found to be in reasonable agreement. The model was then used to identify the importance of factors such as flexibility of the wall and relative density of the backfill. The study reveals that the maximum bending moments given by current design procedures are nonconservative for stiffer walls. Deflections of flexible walls are of major concern. Flexible walls supporting a sand of medium density yield the greatest deflection.     

Pseudo-dynamic approach of seismic active earth pressure behind retaining wall

Knowledge of seismic active earth pressure behind rigid retaining wall is very important in the design of retaining wall in earthquake prone region. Commonly used Mononobe-Okabe method considers pseudo-static approach, which gives the linear distribution of seismic earth pressure in an approximate way. In this paper, the pseudo-dynamic method is used to compute the distribution of seismic active earth pressure on a rigid retaining wall supporting cohesionless backfill in more realistic manner by considering time and phase difference within the backfill. Planar rupture surface is considered in the analysis. Effects of a wide range of parameters like wall friction angle, soil friction angle, shear wave velocity, primary wave velocity and horizontal and vertical seismic accelerations on seismic active earth pressure have been studied. Results are provided in tabular and graphical non-dimensional form with a comparison to pseudo-static method to highlight the realistic non-linearity of seismic active earth pressures distribution.     

Experimental study on seismic performances of geogrid striped-reinforced waste tire-faced retaining wallsEI北大核心

废旧轮胎胎面挡土墙是一种有效利用废旧轮胎的理想途径,但直立的模块式废旧轮胎胎面挡土墙不能承受高强度的地震作用,因而提出格栅条带式加筋的方法提高其抗震性能。根据土-结构动力相似体系,设计格栅条带式加筋废旧轮胎胎面挡土墙振动台试验模型,考虑地震强度、地震波、格栅加筋长度、格栅加筋间距以及墙面坡度的影响,分析胎面墙体与回填料加速度、墙体侧向位移、墙顶表面回填料沉降以及墙背动土压力等地震响应特征,并与无加筋的废旧轮胎胎面挡土墙的振动台模型试验进行对比。研究结果表明:格栅条带式加筋胎面挡土墙的方式显著改善了无加筋状态的胎面挡土墙的地震响应特征,提高了胎面挡土墙的抗震性能,格栅条带式加筋直立式废旧轮胎胎面挡土墙可以作为理想的墙体进行工程推广应用。     

砂土地基和粉质黏土地基基坑悬臂开挖离心模型试验

分别开展砂土和粉质黏土两种典型土质条件下基坑悬臂式开挖离心模型试验,详细叙述试验过程中所要解决的关键问题,并提出合理的解决方案。通过对比分析两组试验结果,得到以下结论：非饱和土地基制备中参数控制困难,分层夯实法有待进一步改进,而砂雨法制备的砂土地基参数可控性更好;两组试验的结果有差异,砂土地基试验所呈现的土压力、地基变形、支护弯矩的变化规律更好,因此,岩土离心试验可适当考虑以砂土代替非饱和土;对于采用悬臂式支护结构的基坑,开挖引起的地表沉降曲线在砂土中呈指数型,而在粉质黏土中呈直线型;开挖引起的粉质黏土地基土体位移范围较砂土地基更大;开挖引起的砂土中挡墙弯矩较粉质黏土更大,砂土和粉质黏土中最大弯矩位置都随开挖逐渐下移;在砂土试验中开挖引起主动区土压力各处均减小,而在粉质黏土试验中开挖引起土压力在挡墙底有增大趋势。该基坑工程离心模型试验过程及数据处理方法可为进一步试验提供参考。     

Dynamic active earth pressure on cantilever retaining walls

In normal practice, the active earth pressure on cantilever retaining wall is evaluated with different procedures relating to an ideal vertical plane passing through the heel of the wall. If the wall presents a long heel, failure planes do not interfere with the vertical stem, so that the limit Rankine conditions can develop freely in the backfill. The inclination of lateral actions along the ideal plane is assumed to be constant and depends on the geometry of the ground level and on the friction angle φ. The Authors recently proposed a new method to evaluate the active earth pressure coefficient due to seismic loading with a pseudo-static stress plasticity solution. The present paper describes the application of this method to a retaining wall supporting a φ soil backfill with an irregular surface. For two different configurations of wall-soil system, the behaviour is also studied by continuum FDM dynamic analyses, utilising four Italian accelerometric time-histories scaled at the same peak ground acceleration. The comparison between different procedures is also analysed.     

Seismic active earth pressure on walls with bilinear backface using pseudo-dynamic approach

This paper presents a study on the seismic active earth pressure behind a rigid cantilever retaining wall with bilinear backface using pseudo-dynamic approach. The wall has sudden change in inclination along its depth and a planar failure surface has been considered behind the retaining wall. The effects of a wide range of parameters like soil friction angle, wall inclination, wall friction angle, amplification of vibration, variation of shear modulus, and horizontal and vertical seismic accelerations on the active earth pressure have been explored in the present study. Unlike the Mononobe-Okabe method, which incorporates pseudo-static analysis, the present analysis predicts a nonlinear variation of active earth pressure along the wall. The results have been compared with the existing values in the literature.     

可液化场地微型桩地震响应特性研究

可液化场地微型桩的地震响应分析是确保工程安全和优化抗震设计的前提。应用动态离心机试验和三维有效应力数值分析方法,研究了微型单桩桩台的侧向变形和加速度、不同埋深桩身弯矩、可液化场地的加速度及超孔隙水压力等响应特征。首先开展了相对密实度为57%饱和土层、输入波是频率为1 Hz和峰值加速度为1.516 m/s2正弦波的微型桩40 g动态地震响应离心机试验,进而应用基于多重剪切机构塑性模型和液化前缘状态面概念的三维有效应力分析方法,反演了试验结果,并进行了对比分析,结果表明,数值模拟与离心机试验结果吻合,液化场地特性控制着建于其中微型桩的地震响应特征,微型桩桩台的水平变形和残余变形可达78、30 mm,桩身最大弯矩和最大残余弯矩呈现向桩身底部迁移特点,同时表明,基于动态土工离心机试验和数值分析相结合的研究方法,分析可液化场地微型桩地震响应特性是有效可行的,研究结论为可液化场地微型桩的抗震设计提供了可靠的依据和参考。     

Test and numerical research on wall deflections induced by pre-excavation dewatering

Numerous studies have been devoted to the performance of excavations and adjacent facilities. In contrast, few studies have focused on retaining wall deflections induced by pre-excavation dewatering. However, considerable inward cantilever deflections were observed for a diaphragm wall in a pre-excavation dewatering test based on a long and narrow metro excavation, and the maximum deflection reached 10 mm (37.6% of the allowable wall deflection for the project). Based on the test results, a three-dimensional soil–fluid coupled finite element model was established and used to study the mechanism of the dewatering-induced diaphragm wall deflections. Numerical results indicated that the diaphragm wall deflection results from three factors: (1) the seepage force around the dewatering well and the soil–wall interaction caused the inward horizontal displacement of the soil inside the excavation; (2) the reduced total earth pressure on the excavated side of the diaphragm wall above approximately 1/2 of the maximum dewatering depth disequilibrated the original earth pressure on both sides of the diaphragm wall; and (3) the different negative friction on the excavated and retained sides of the diaphragm wall led to the rotation of the diaphragm wall into the excavation.     

Seismic Passive Earth Thrust on Retaining Walls with Cohesive Backfills Using Pseudo-Dynamic Approach

In this paper, the pseudo-dynamic approach is used to estimate seismic passive earth thrust on retaining walls with cohesive-frictional backfills. The time-dependent pseudo-dynamic approach considers the influence of dynamic parameters such as the velocity of primary and shear waves, the period of lateral shaking, and the phase and amplitude variations of horizontal and vertical earthquake accelerations with depth. The failure plane behind the wall is assumed to be planar. The analysis is based on the equilibrium of forces which act within the failure wedge. The obtained results show that the backfill cohesion increases both the seismic passive earth thrust and the failure plane inclination angle with the horizontal plane. It is also observed that both horizontal and vertical seismic accelerations have decreasing effect on seismic passive earth thrust as well as failure plane inclination angle. The results of present pseudo-dynamic analysis propose a lower solution for seismic passive earth thrust compared to earlier pseudo-static solution available in the literature.     

Pseudo-static Analysis of Reinforced Earth Retaining Wall considering Non-linear Failure Surface

The seismic stability of reinforced earth has been investigated in this paper using pseudo-static method of analysis considering horizontal and vertical seismic acceleration with non-linear failure surface. The sliding wedge is divided into a number of horizontal slices to determine the strength and length of the geo-synthetic reinforcement for seismic internal stability of battered face rigid retaining wall supporting c-Φ backfill. Results are presented in graphical form representing the required length of geo-sythetic reinforcement under seismic condition to maintain the internal stability of reinforced soil. The influences of horizontal and vertical seismic acceleration, soil friction angle, cohesion, adhesion and wall inclination angle on the required length of the geo-sythetic reinforcement have been studied. From the present study it is seen that the required length of geo-synthetic reinforcement increases due to increase in the value of seismic accelerations.     

地震作用下挡土墙主动土压力及转动位移分析

分析地震引起的挡土墙位移及墙后土压力,对于评估挡土墙可靠性具有重要意义。基于拟动力法,考虑时效、地震波传播的相位差、超载、墙背摩擦角、填土黏聚力以及填土开裂等影响,建立地震作用下挡土墙主动土压力计算模型,获得挡土墙绕墙趾转动模式下主动土压力大小、分布形式及作用点高度。同时,考虑挡土墙本身受地震荷载作用的影响,求出挡土墙绕墙趾的转动位移。通过与Mononobe-Okabe法对比可知,文中获得的主动土压力值与Mononobe-Okabe法接近,但Mononobe-Okabe法低估了主动土压力作用点高度,表明采用Mononobe-Okabe法设计存在风险。通过算例分析了地震系数、墙背摩擦系数、超载大小、时间、填土黏聚力和内摩擦角对挡土墙转动位移的影响。     

Seismic response of pile foundations in liquefiable soil: parametric study

The performance of pile foundations in liquefiable soil subjected to earthquake loading is a very complex process. The strength and stiffness of the soil decrease due to the increase in pore pressure. The pile can be seriously destroyed by the soil liquefaction during strong earthquakes. This paper presents the response of vertical piles in liquefiable soil under seismic loads. A finite difference model, known as fast Lagrangian analysis of continua, is used to study the pile behavior considering a nonlinear constitutive model for soil liquefaction and pile?Csoil interaction. The maximum lateral displacement and maximum pile bending moment are obtained for different pile diameters, earthquake predominant frequencies, Arias intensities, and peak accelerations. It is found that the maximum lateral displacement and the maximum pile bending moment increase when the predominant earthquake frequency value decreases for a given peak acceleration value.     

Seismic Passive Earth Pressure on Walls with Bilinear Backface Using Pseudo-Dynamic Approach

By using pseudo-dynamic approach, a method has been proposed in this paper to compute the seismic passive earth pressure behind a rigid cantilever retaining wall with bilinear backface. The wall has sudden change in inclination along its depth and a planar failure surface has been considered behind the retaining wall. The effects of a wide range of parameters like soil friction angle, wall inclination, wall friction angle, amplification of vibration, variation of shear modulus and horizontal and vertical seismic accelerations on the passive earth pressure have been explored in the present study. For the sake of illustration, the computations have been exclusively carried out for constant wall friction through out the depth. Unlike the Mononobe-Okabe method, which incorporates pseudo-static analysis, the present analysis predicts a nonlinear variation of passive earth pressure along the wall.     

离心模型挡土墙试验设备的研制

土压力问题是土力学和岩土工程领域的基本研究课题。土压力离心模型试验是验证土压力计算方法和研究土压力形成物理机制的有力工具。笔者研制开发的土压力离心模型试验设备,可用于刚性挡墙的静止土压力和平动模式下主动侧土压力的研究。该设备采用电机作为驱动系统,使得挡墙能够缓慢均匀地位移;配备有控制挡墙位移的自动控制系统,使得挡墙在离心加速度增大的过程能够保持静止状态。针对填土面水平、墙后填土为砂土的情况进行了离心模型试验,测量了墙背土压力及填土位移场随挡墙位移量的变化。试验结果规律好,验证了设备的有效性。     

Analytical solution for the response of a flexible retaining structure with an elastic backfill

An extension of an existing analytical solution for the response of a flexible retaining wall subjected to seismic loading is presented. The solution is based on the assumption that the wall and the soil remain elastic and that there are no shear stresses at the wall–soil interface while the contact remains tied. In addition to the wall displacements due to bending, the wall can experience rigid‐body motions due to rotation and horizontal and vertical movements. The solution is verified by comparing its results with those of a finite element method. Results from the analytical solution together with those of the (FEM) are used to identify and quantify the relative importance of key parameters on the seismic response of a wall. The study shows that wall flexibility and horizontal rigid‐body motions of the wall and frequency content of the seismic input have a significant effect on the wall loads. The pressures behind a rigid wall decrease as the wall rotates about its base, whereas for a flexible wall, the soil pressures decrease as the friction between the backfill and the wall increases. The rigid‐body vertical movements of a wall have little impact on the dynamic pressures induced in the wall, except for a flexible wall where, when prevented, the dynamic loads may be reduced. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

地震条件下挡土墙主动土压力及其分布的新分析法

采用旋转挡土墙计算模型的变换法,将在地震和拟静力法条件下主动土压力的求解问题转化为在静力条件下主动土压力的求解问题。根据在静力条件下水平层分析法的主动土压力推导结果,直接获得在地震条件下主动土压力强度分布、土压力合力及其作用点位置的表达式,并运用图解法得到了临界破裂角的解析解。公式可考虑水平和垂直地震加速度、不同墙背倾角、墙背和坡面倾角与填料存在黏结力和外摩擦角、存在均布超载等诸多因素的影响,公式可以适用于在常用边界和地震条件下黏性土的主动土压力计算。旋转地震角法是将在地震和拟静力法条件下挡土墙计算模型旋转为在静力条件下挡土墙计算模型,但旋转挡土墙计算模型并不改变挡土墙和墙后填土的应力状态,按在静力条件下挡土墙主动土压力求解方法求解在地震和拟静力法条件下主动土压力,该方法大大简化了在地震和拟静力法条件下的主动土压力计算公式推导过程,统一了在拟静力法条件下的地震土压力求解,理论更加完善。     

Static and dynamic active earth pressure

Summary The dynamic active earth pressure on retaining structures due to seismic loading is commonly obtained by using the modified Coulomb's approach which is known as the Mononobe-Okabe method. This method has generally been used for cohesionless soils only. A general solution for the determination of total (i.e. static and dynamic) active earth force for a c- soil as backfill was developed by Prakash and Saran in 1966 based on the simplifying assumption that adhesion between the wall-soil interface is equal to the cohesion of the soil, that the surface of the backfill is horizontal, and that the effect of the vertical acceleration can be neglected. This note presents an improved method for calculating the static and dynamic active force behind a rigid retaining wall based on its geometry, inclination of the backfill, surcharge, strength parameters of the backfill, and the adhesion between the wall face and the soil. The effects of adhesion, inclination of backfill, and vertical components of seismic loading for a typical retaining wall are discussed.     

Pseudo-dynamic methods for seismic passive earth pressure behind a cantilever retaining wall with inclined backfill

The designing of retaining walls requires the complete knowledge of earth pressure distribution. Under earthquake conditions the design needs special attention to reduce the devastating effect, but under seismic conditions, the available literature mostly uses the pseudo-static analytical solution as an approximate to the real dynamic nature of the complex problem. This paper shows a detailed study on the seismic passive earth thrust behind a cantilever retaining wall with inclined backfill surface by pseudo-dynamic analysis. A planar failure surface has been considered. The effect of variation of parameters such as soil friction angle, wall friction angle and back fill inclination have been explored. A complete analysis shows that the time dependent non-linear behaviour of the pressure distribution obtained in the present method results in more realistic design values of earth pressures under earthquake conditions. Results are provided in tabular and graphical non-dimensional form and compared thoroughly with the existing values in the literature.     

Numerical simulation of a tunnel surrounded by sand under earthquake using a hypoplastic model

A numerical model of a centrifuge experiment on tunnel located in sand is being presented. The experiment was carried out under seismic loading using a dynamic actuator. The responses of the tunnel and of the sand were measured. The numerical model is based on a hypoplastic constitutive model with intergranular strains implemented in the FE-code TOCHNOG. The calculated accelerations in the sand match the measured results, while the surface settlement and the bending moments in the tunnel lining are only qualitatively reproduced by the numerical model.