A parametric study on the dynamic lateral earth forces on retaining walls according to European and Turkish Building Earthquake Codes

Abstract

In the earthquake regulations of many countries, Mononobe-Okabe method was used to determine the seismic lateral earth forces and earth pressure coefficients for the design of retaining structures. However, there are various interpretation differences of this method between earthquake regulations of different countries. In this study, effect of different seismic acceleration coefficients (S_DS) and different soil friction angles(ϕ_d^,) on the seismic earth forces acting on a high retaining structure were investigated through a parametric study based on the methods described in 2018 Turkish Building Earthquake Code (TBEC-2018) and EuroCode-8 (EC-8). For this purpose, approximately 120 analyzes were carried out by using different parameters and the analysis results were shown in tables and figures. Analyses were performed for yielding rigid retaining walls and anchored walls for the principles defined in the mentioned earthquake codes. It was observed that the seismic lateral force estimations made with TBEC-2018 are higher compared to values calculated according to EuroCode-8. In the calculation of dynamic thrust, unexpected results may occur at some critical values of θ angle which is dependent on the lateral acceleration coefficient.