Earthquake-Induced Permanent Displacements of Embedded Cantilever Retaining Walls

Stability analysis of retaining walls in seismic areas is generally performed calculating a safety factor against a possible mechanism of collapse. Nevertheless, considering that limit conditions usually occur in some time intervals during an earthquake, a more rational approach consists in assessing the performance of the structure in terms of accumulated permanent displacements. In this context, a novel method is proposed in the present study for predicting the earthquake-induced permanent displacements of embedded cantilever retaining walls, such as diaphragm or sheet-pile walls. This method requires solving a simple motion equation of the structure subjected to the soil-structure contact stresses evaluated using a closed-form solution. Specifically, it is assumed that the wall undergoes a rigid rotation around a point located in its embedded portion. Comparisons are presented with both experimental and numerical results documented in published studies. In all considered cases, a satisfactory agreement is