On the seismic response of a flexible wall retaining a viscous poroelastic soil

A simple and reliable method is presented for the seismic analysis of a flexible wall retaining a layer of fluid-saturated viscous and poroelastic soil. A viscous version of the linear poroelastic Biot model is adopted for the description of the soil dissipative behavior. The effects of the wall flexibility and the mechanical properties of the soil on the amplitude and distribution of the pressures and the associated forces acting on the wall under harmonic loadings are firstly analyzed. The pseudostatic response is then recovered as a particular case for a vanishing small frequency of excitation. Finally, the response of the soil–wall system to generic seismic excitation is obtained using the Discrete Fourier Transform (FFT) method through the superposition of the contribution of each harmonic component of the ground acceleration spectrum. The analysis of the dynamic response obtained for different geometries of the wall and mechanical soil behavior allowed the relative importance of the various parameters involved in the seismic response of the system to be assessed.

[1]  A. Arias,et al.  A Simplified Elastic Model for Seismic Analysis of Earth-Retaining Structures with Limited Displacements , 1981 .

[2]  Athanasios P. Chassiakos,et al.  Dynamic pressures on rigid cantilever walls retaining poroelastic soil media. Part II. Second method of solution , 2001 .

[3]  Rowland Richards,et al.  Seismic Behavior of Gravity Retaining Walls , 1979 .

[4]  edited by Hans F. Winterkorn Hsai-Yang Fang.  Foundation Engineering Handbook , 2017 .

[5]  Robert V. Whitman,et al.  Design of Earth Retaining Structures for Dynamic Loads , 1970 .

[6]  M. Biot.  Theory of Propagation of Elastic Waves in a Fluid‐Saturated Porous Solid. I. Low‐Frequency Range , 1956 .

[7]  John H Wood,et al.  Earthquake-Induced Soil Pressures on Structures , 1973 .

[8]  B. Loret,et al.  Acceleration waves, flutter instabilities and stationary discontinuities in inelastic porous media , 1991 .

[9]  R. V. Whitman.  Seismic Design of Earth Retaining Structures , 1991 .

[10]  M. Biot.  MECHANICS OF DEFORMATION AND ACOUSTIC PROPAGATION IN POROUS MEDIA , 1962 .

[11]  W. D. Liam Finn,et al.  Seismic lateral pressures for design of rigid walls , 1999 .

[12]  H. Tajimi,et al.  Dynamic analysis of structure embedded in elastic stratum , 1969 .

[13]  Anestis S. Veletsos,et al.  Dynamic response of flexible retaining walls , 2000 .

[14]  Anestis S. Veletsos,et al.  Dynamic modeling and response of soil-wall systems , 1994 .

[15]  Robert V. Whitman,et al.  SEISMICALLY INDUCED MOVEMENT OF RETAINING WALLS , 1983 .

[16]  D. D. Theodorakopoulos.  Dynamic pressures on a pair of rigid walls retaining poroelastic soil , 2003 .

[17]  Thomas J. Siller,et al.  Seismic response of tied‐back retaining walls , 1991 .

[18]  Anestis S. Veletsos,et al.  Dynamic response of cantilever retaining walls , 1997 .

[19]  Anestis S. Veletsos,et al.  Dynamic soil pressures on rigid vertical walls , 1994 .

[20]  R. M. Bowen,et al.  Incompressible porous media models by use of the theory of mixtures , 1980 .

[21]  Enrico Radi,et al.  The effects of inertia on crack growth in poroelastic fluid-saturated media , 2001 .