Seismic pseudo-static active earth pressure of narrow c-φ soils on gravity walls under translational mode

Abstract

This study utilises adaptive finite element analysis to investigate the failure mechanisms of narrow cohesive backfill under seismic conditions, and five classical failure modes are summarized. The pseudo-static solution is developed for the case when a narrow cohesive backfill is behind a gravity retaining wall and experiences seismic conditions. Our analytical solution uses the limit equilibrium method, Rankine's theory and the horizontal differential layer method. It considers the effect of soil cohesion, the interface friction angles, backfill geometries, seismic acceleration, the soil arching effect and the effect of shearing forces between adjacent elements on seismic active earth pressure. We propose a new approach that utilises the finite difference method to determine the tension crack depth of the narrow cohesive backfill, and an iterative calculation to determine the critical failure angle of the backfill wedge.