Seismic Passive Earth Pressure with Seepage for Cohesionless Soil

Abstract

Abstract The authors deal with the computing seismic passive earth pressure acting on a vertical rigid wall. The wall is provided with a drainage system along soil-structure interface and retains the cohesionless backfill subjected to water seepage. A general solution for the seismic passive earth pressure is presented. The solution is based on Coulomb's theory wherein seismic forces are assumed to be pseudostatic. The solution considers the pore water pressures induced by water seepage and earthquake shaking. Some important parameters are included in the solution. The parameters are the soil effective internal friction angle, wall friction, soil unit weight, and horizontal and vertical seismic acceleration coefficients. The comparison of the total seismic passive earth pressure in horizontal direction from the present method with published works indicates that the present method may be reasonable. The variations of the passive earth pressure coefficient with the soil effective internal friction angle are investigated for different wall friction angles and seismic forces. The effect of the water seepage on the seismic passive earth pressure is also investigated. Keywords: cohesionless soilearth pressureearthquakeretaining wallseepagetheoretical analysis Acknowledgments The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial supports from the Natural Science Foundation Project of Chongqing Science & Technology Commission of China under Grant No. CSTC2009BA6001 and SCTC2011GGA30001 the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation under Grant No. 200902284, and the National Science and Technology Support Program in P. R. China under Grant No. 2012BAB05B04.