Abstract

This article evaluates how the seismic pressures developed in embedded walls are affected by different wall stiffness and various contact soil-wall conditions. Several two-dimensional numerical models of an embedded wall-soil system were developed in Abaqus® by varying the wall stiffness. One model considered the wall as very rigid with a large modulus of elasticity and the other one considered the wall as flexible with original modulus of elasticity. Wall heights of 10, 20 and 30 meters were considered on the models to obtain different wall stiffness. The contact between the soil and the wall is modified by changing the friction coefficient between 0 to 0.75. The response of the soil is validated using 1D nonlinear site response analyses. The analyses are performed using records that match a narrow-band modified target spectrum for a moment magnitude of 7.70. The results show that the rigid walls developed larger seismic pressures than the flexible walls when subjected to the same earthquake records. The seismic soil pressures in the rigid walls do not change considerably by varying the contact condition between the soil and wall. Changes in the friction coefficient have a major impact on the seismic pressure distributions on flexible walls.