Time history of seismic earth pressure response from gravity retaining wall based on energy dissipation

The seismic design of gravity retaining walls is based mostly on the pseudo static method. The seismic earth pressure is assumed to be a constant without considering the wave traveling effect when the seismic wave propagates through the slope. However, under continuous ground motion, the actual earth pressure on the retaining wall varies with time. The present seismic earth pressure calculation method yields results that differ significantly from the actual scenario. Considering this, a slip surface curve was assumed in this study. It is more suitable for engineering practice. In addition, a theoretical calculation model based on energy dissipation was established. The time history of seismic earth pressure response under continuous ground motion was calculated using the equilibrium equation between the external power and the internal energy dissipation power of the sliding soil wedge. It can more effectively reflect the stress scenario of a retaining wall under seismic conditions. To verify the applicability of the proposed approach, a large-scale shaking table test was conducted, and the time history of the seismic earth pressure response obtained from the experiment was compared with the calculation results. The results show that the proposed approach is applicable to the calculation of the time history of seismic earth pressure response of gravity retaining walls. This lays the foundation for the seismic design of retaining structures by using dynamic time history.