A method for predicting the permanent displacements of embedded cantilever retaining walls under seismic loading

P rediction of the earthquake induced permanent displacements of retaining structures represents a key step in the context of a performance based design approach. For retaining walls with shallow foundations, t his issue is usually dealt with using the well known Newmark sliding block method. However, several studies have shown that this method is unsuitable to provide a trustworthy prediction of the displacements experienced by the embedded cantilever retaining walls under seismic loading . To overcome this drawback, a method of practical intere st is proposed in the present study for a prediction of the earthquake induced permanent displacement of these structure s . In such a method, the rotation and the associated displacement of the structure are evaluated solving a simple equation of motion when the ground acceleration exceeds a critical value. Unlike Newmark’s method, this critical value is updated during the se ismic event by calculating the forces acting on the wall by a closed form solution recently derived by the authors. To assess the predi ctive c a pa bility of the present method, some comparisons with well documented case studies available in the literature are shown . The method is also simple to use and requires few conventional parameters as input data.