A Kinematic Approach for Seismic Stability Analysis of Cantilever Retaining Wall

Abstract

This paper presents a simple method to evaluate the seismic stability of Lshape retaining walls in the framework of the kinematical approach of upper bound theorem. It can predict the positions of two slip surfaces once the seismic acceleration threshold for slide is exceeded. Based on the wall-soil system collapse mechanism, the equation for expressing critical limit-equilibrium state was employed to define yield acceleration factor which contains two variables. Case study and comparative analysis show that: (1) critical yield acceleration factor is smaller than the M-O formula and NSPPS method; (2) the angle between the two surfaces equals to 90 o -φ.