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A Finite Element Modeling Study On The Seismic Response Of Cantilever Retaining Walls

A numerical study was performed in order to investigate the effects of base excitation
characteristics (peak acceleration amplitude and frequency of the excitation), soil strength
and wall flexibility on the dynamic response of cantilever earth-retaining walls. In this
study, Plaxis v8.2 dynamic finite element code was used. Previous 1-g shake table tests
performed by &Ccedil / ali&amp / #56256 / &amp / #56570 / an (1999) and Yunat&ccedil / i (2003) were used to compare the experimental
results with those obtained by finite element analysis. Comparison of experimental and
numerical results indicated that the code was capable of predicting the dynamic lateral
thrust values and bending moment profiles on the wall stems. In the light of these
validation studies, a parametric study was carried on for a configuration that consists of an
8 meters high retaining wall supporting the same height of dry cohesionless backfill. Total
and incremental dynamic thrust values, points of application and dimensionless bending
moment values were presented together with the results obtained from commonly used
pseudo static Mononobe-Okabe method and Steedman-Zeng approaches. According to
the finite element analyses results, total dynamic active thrust act at approximately 0.30H
above wall base. Base motion frequency becomes an important factor on magnitudes of
dynamic active thrust when it approaches to the natural frequency of the system.
Significantly high overturning moments were predicted at wall base in this case. It was
observed that increasing wall rigidity causes an increase in forces acting on the wall stem during
dynamic motion.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:METU/oai:etd.lib.metu.edu.tr:http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/2/12607554/index.pdf
Date01 September 2006
CreatorsErtugrul, Ozgur Lutfi
ContributorsOzkan, Mehmet Yener
PublisherMETU
Source SetsMiddle East Technical Univ.
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeM.S. Thesis
Formattext/pdf
RightsTo liberate the content for METU campus

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