PSEUDOSTATIC DESIGN FACTORS FOR STABILITY OF WATERFRONT-RETAINING WALL DURING EARTHQUAKE

Abstract

The paper presents a methodology for seismic design of rigid watferfront-retaining wall and proposes simple design factors for the sliding stability under seismic condition. Conventional pseudostatic approach has been used for the calculation of the seismic forces, while for the calculation of the hydrodynamic pressure, Westergaard's approach has been used. In addition, the hydrodynamic force has been considered from both the upstream and downstream sides of the waterfront-retaining wall under free water condition of the backfill. Simplified expression for the calculation of the equivalent weight of the wall which would be needed to maintain sliding stability is presented. It has been observed that the presence of water both on the upstream and downstream sides of the wall has serious destabilizing effect on the stability of the wall. It is noticed that as the height of the water inside the backfill increased from 0.00 to a height equal to the height of the wall itself, i.e., the backfill is fully submerged, the weight of the wall needed for the later case is around 3 times more than what would be needed for the former case. Similar observations were also made by varying other parameters like the horizontal and vertical seismic acceleration coefficients, height of the water on the upstream side of the wall, and soil and wall friction angles. The pore pressure ratio and the inclination of the ground, however, did not have significant effect on the results. Due to nonavailability of the results of similar kind in literature, an exact comparison for the present results could not be made. Only partial comparison of the present results is made with an already existing methodology for the dry backfill case only, in which no presence of water has been considered on the other side of the wall. This comparison shows a good agreement with the present results. The proposed pseudostatic design factors for the case of wet backfill with the presence of water on both sides of the wall are claimed to be unique.