Analysis of Passive Earth Pressure and Displacements of Retaining Walls Using Pseudo-Dynamic Approach

Using additional dynamic parameters in the pseudo-static method like shear wave and primary wave velocities of soil, phase change in the shear and primary waves, and soil amplification for seismic accelerations, one can benefit from another useful tool called pseudo-dynamic method to solve the problem of earth pressures. In this study, the pseudo-dynamic method is used to compute the seismic passive earth pressures on a rigid gravity retaining wall by considering both the planar failure and composite failure (log-spiral and planar) mechanisms. To validate the present formulation, passive earth pressure computed by the present method are compared with those given by other authors. Seismic passive earth pressure coefficients are provided in tabular form for different parameters. The sliding and rotational displacements are also computed and results of the comparative study showed that the assumption of planar failure mechanism for rough soil-wall interfaces significantly overestimates passive earth pressure and underestimate the sliding and rotational displacements.