Deep braced basement wall under seismic loading: Numerical analysis vs centrifuge experiment

A numerical analysis of the seismic response of a deep braced basement wall is studied. The basement is embedded in a uniform layered dry medium-dense sand stratum. A nonlinear inelastic constitutive model with kinematic hardening and associative flow rule is employed to capture the soil behavior. Particular attention is paid to the wall-soil interface as it is properly modeled to allow separation and sliding. Numerical results are compared with the centrifuge response of the Wagner and Sitar (2016) experiments. A series of parametric analyses is performed, utilizing the same excitations as in the experiments, namely the Takatori, 1995 Kobe and the Saratoga West Valley College, 1989 Loma Prieta recorded strong ground motions. Results are given in terms of acceleration time histories, elastic response spectra, static and dynamic soil pressures. Our results are further compared with the Mononobe-Okabe method soil pressure distribution.