Seismic Design of Earth-Retaining Structures

Abstract

Earthquake-resistant design of earth retaining structures like retaining walls, earth dams and foundations are very important problems to minimize the devastating effect of earthquake hazards. In this paper a comprehensive review for different methods to calculate seismic earth pressures and their point of applications is shown. Numerical example shows the merit of a displacement-based analysis over force-based analysis by considering a permissible displacement of the wall. Modification of IS code for seismic design of retaining wall is proposed. Merits and demerits of several design and analytical procedures for earthen dam and foundations under seismic conditions are provided in this paper.