Natural frequencies of full-height panel reinforced soil walls of variable cross-section

Abstract

Natural frequency has a significant influence on the dynamic response of structures. In this study, a new transfer matrix method is proposed to calculate the natural frequencies of reinforced soil retaining walls by modeling the facing and reinforcement layers as a beam-and-spring assembly using beam-on-elastic foundation theory. Among the advantages of the proposed method are that the method can be applied to both the uniform and tapering facing cross-sections, and it can be used to calculate higher-order natural frequencies of reinforced soil retaining walls. The accuracy of the proposed method is demonstrated by comparing its predicted frequency results with those using analytical and numerical methods reported in related literature. A parametric analysis is carried out, which indicates that the size and geometry of the facing panel have more significant influences on the natural frequencies of the full-height panel reinforced soil walls than their reinforcement properties.