A SIMPLIFIED PROCEDURE TO EVALUATE EARTHQUAKE-INDUCED RESIDUAL DISPLACEMENTS OF CONVENTIONAL TYPE RETAINING WALLS

This study attempts to develop a simplified procedure to evaluate earthquake-induced residual displacements of conventional retaining walls (e.g., gravity, leaning, and cantilever retaining walls). Based on the results from a series of shaking table model tests, the study found that subsoil and backfill deformations could be significant even in cases of dense model ground that cannot be evaluated by using Newmark's rigid sliding block analogy. In the proposed method, therefore, the effects of subsoil and backfill deformation were taken into account as well as the movement of the wall as a rigid mass, which was evaluated using Newmark's method. The deformation properties of the subsoil and backfill were modeled based on results from a series of laboratory soil tests and moment load tests. Simulations of shaking table model tests using the proposed method revealed that computed residual displacements agreed well with the measured ones even though the model tests were conducted under a wide variety of conditions.