Seismic Stability Analysis of Reinforced Soil Wall Using Horizontal Slice Method

Abstract

The seismic stability of a reinforced soil wall has been analyzed using the horizontal slice method considering the pseudo-static seismic forces. The effect of various parameters including wall inclination angle, angle of internal friction of soil, horizontal seismic loading, cohesion of the backfill and surcharge loading has been examined. It is found that the stability of a reinforced soil wall is largely affected by the horizontal seismic forces. The tensile resistance which has to be mobilized by the reinforcement to maintain the stability of wall, increases with an increase in surcharge, horizontal seismic forces, whereas the same decreases with an increase in the cohesion of soil. The normalized geosynthetic tensile reinforcement force is used for comparing the effect of different parameters.

Stability of Reinforced Retaining Wall under Seismic Loads

“…The findings are in agreement with Saeed and Ali [38] and Nouri et al [23,32,39]. Vertical seismic load and soil cohesion have an insignificant impact on the tensile force of reinforcement, which is also close to the conclusions drawn by Nimbalkar et al [34], Syed et al [40], and Chandaluri et al [41]. In summary, the HSM method adopted in this study could lead to similar results from a pseudostatic or experimental approach in previous research, proving that this method is suitable for analyzing the tensile force of reinforcement in retaining walls under seismic loads.…”