CE 5601 Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering
2019 Fall
Department of Civil Engineering Prof. Dr. K. Önder Çetin
ASSIGNMENT #9:
Seismic Assessment of Retaining Structures
For the retaining wall shown in the figure given below:
20 kN/m
Sand wet =18 kN/m3
=300 4m
Sand sat =19 kN/m3
=320 2m
1 sin 1 sin
Hint: K A ; KP ; PA K A v 2 c K A ; PP K P v 2 c K P
1 sin 1 sin
= (2/3) and kv 0.5 kh
a) Determine the active and passive pressures acting on the wall by using Rankine’s
theory and plot your results on a similar figure given below. Determine the total
resulting force (R) per meter length acting on the wall.
4m
2m
b) Maximum horizontal soil acceleration at the ground surface of the backfill is estimated
as 0.35 g. Estimate the net dynamic thrust and its point of application on the wall
during this earthquake scenario by using Mononobe-Okabe (1921, 1926) method.
c) Estimate the minimum wall weight required to ensure stability of the gravity wall by
using Richards and Elms formulation. If the top width of the wall is given as 3 meters,
what should be the width at the base of the wall to fulfill the minimum weight
requirement? Assume unit weight of concrete as 24 kN/m3
Assignment #9: Seismic Assessment of Retaining Structures
CE 5601 Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering
2019 Fall
Department of Civil Engineering Prof. Dr. K. Önder Çetin
d) Estimate the displacement of this gravity wall by using Richards and Elms method.
Corrected Richard and Elms (1979) formula:
(cos 2 ( ) sin( ) tan b ) Pae
Ww
(1 k v )(tanb tan )
Assignment #9: Seismic Assessment of Retaining Structures
