Open AccessSeismic design of gravity retaining walls
Author(s) -
David Elms,
Rowland Richards
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
bulletin of the new zealand society for earthquake engineering/nzsee quarterly bulletin
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.917
H-Index - 36
eISSN - 2324-1543
pISSN - 1174-9857
DOI - 10.5459/bnzsee.12.2.114-121
Subject(s) - inertia , displacement (psychology) , acceleration , retaining wall , sensitivity (control systems) , expression (computer science) , structural engineering , seismic analysis , mechanics , geology , mathematics , engineering , computer science , physics , classical mechanics , psychology , electronic engineering , psychotherapist , programming language
Starting from the Mononobe-Okabe analysis, the seismic behaviour of gravity retaining walls is investigated. The importance of including wall inertia effects is demonstrated. The sensitivity of the results to changes in various parameters is explored: care must be taken in some ranges. For a moderately severe earthquake, it is shown that most walls will move, but that the movement is finite, and calculable. An approximate expression is given for the expected displacement. From this, a design approach is developed in which the designer chooses an allowable displacement, uses it to compute a design acceleration coefficient, and then computes the wall mass required.