Abstract
Failures of retaining walls have occurred many times during past earthquakes. While design calculations have been developed for retaining walls with dry backfills, the complex nature of excess pore pressure buildup in saturated soils makes most simple design calculations unsuitable for the design of waterfront retaining structures when significant pore pressure is generated. In particular, when liquefaction is initiated in soils, the stability of retaining walls is seriously compromised. Over the years, a large number of centrifuge tests have been conducted on retaining wall models subjected to simulated earthquake loading. The types of retaining walls tested include cantilever walls, anchored sheetpile walls, and gravity retaining walls. This paper presents a summary of the results and in particular, the effect of liquefaction of soils on the stability of retaining walls. Analysis of the data and implications for design are discussed.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1165-1179 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | Geotechnical Special Publication |
Issue number | 130-142 |
State | Published - 2005 |
Event | Geo-Frontiers 2005 - Austin, TX, United States Duration: 24 Jan 2005 → 26 Jan 2005 |