A procedure for seismic design of retaining walls

This paper describes how the available solution of the limit equilibrium analysis of retaining walls against sliding and tilting allows for designing the minimum weight and the geometry of a wall that will ensure stability. However, a proper design of a retaining wall in pseudo-static condition must satisfy the stability requirements with a suitable margin of safety against the failure condition, as prescribed by most seismic codes. In particular, in the rotational equilibrium it is necessary to distinguish the contribution because of the earth lateral pressures mobilized along the failure surface and the inertial effect of the soil failure wedge. In this paper a design procedure for retaining walls is proposed, which is based on a closed form solution and accounting for the sliding safety factor and the evaluation of the driving moments on the wall consistent with the failure mechanisms.