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Improved Method for the Seismic Design of Anchored Steel Sheet Pile Walls

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Caputo, GV 
Conti, R 
Viggiani, GMB 
Prüm, C 

Abstract

This paper describes a new pseudostatic approach for an efficient seismic design of anchored steel sheet pile (ASSP) walls supported by shallow passive anchorages. As for other retaining structures, energy dissipation during strong earthquakes leading to reduced inertia forces can be achieved by allowing the activation of ductile plastic mechanisms. To this end, a robust method is required to identify all the possible yielding mechanisms and to guarantee the desired strength hierarchy. It is shown that dissipative mechanisms for ASSP walls correspond either to the local attainment of the soil shear strength in the supporting soil and around the anchor, or in the activation of a log-spiral global failure surface. A new limit equilibrium method is proposed to compute the critical acceleration of the system, corresponding to the actual mobilization of its strength, and the maximum internal forces in the structural members. Theoretical findings are validated against both existing dynamic centrifuge data and the results of original pseudostatic and fully dynamic numerical analyses.

Description

Keywords

Anchored retaining walls, Seismic design, Limit equilibrium methods, Global failure, Anchor capacity, Earth pressure

Journal Title

Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1090-0241
1943-5606

Volume Title

147

Publisher

American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)

Rights

All rights reserved
Sponsorship
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/I019308/1)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/K000314/1)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/L010917/1)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/N021614/1)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/P013848/1)