ABSTRACT
In order to improve current aseismic design procedures of reatining walls, external and internal seismic stability of different types of retaining walls for railway embankment, wich were damaged by the Hyogoken-nambu earthquake, was evaluated. The analysis was performed in the framework of the current design procedure based on the pseudo-static limit equilibrium method while considering the effect of vertical earthquake motion. The potential failure mode was compared with the actual behaviour, and the critical horizontal seismic coefficient wich yielded a safety factor of unity was compared with the estimated peak horizontal acceleration. (AU)
Subject(s)
Earthquakes , Barring Structures , Damage Assessment in Infrastructure , Aseismic Buildings , Impact of Disasters , JapanABSTRACT
This paper is a preliminary report of ongoing studies for the purpose of developing a rational design method to evaluate stability for several types of conventional retaining walls during an earthquake. Since the seismic behavior of retaining walls is not yet completely understood, a series of tilting and shaking table tests on small scale model are performed. The observed failure pattern and critical condition are compared with the predicted ones that are calculated based on pseudo-static approach. The results show that they are qualitatively consistent. However, the angle of failure planes observed for shaking table tests is steeper than what is predicted. It may suggest that the seismic behavior assumed in the prediction is not fully correct (AU)
