Thursday, March 20, 2008

Seismic on restrained retaining walls

The Mononobe-Okabe equations do not apply to restrained walls where activation movement is restricted.

For seismic lateral on restrained walls Retain Pro uses  P = (soil density) x (k<sub h>) x (retained height)^2.  Application is approx. 0.60 x (retained height).  This is a slightly trapezoidal loading but with only slight error a uniform loading could be assumed.   K<sub h> is the acceleration factor appropriate to the site.

See Kramer, Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering, Section 11.6.2.

 

Hugh Brooks, SE

Retain Pro Software