Institutional Repository
Technical University of Crete
EN  |  EL

Search

Browse

My Space

Retaining wall -soil - structure interaction effects due seismic excitation

George Papazafeiropoulos , Prodromos Psarropoulos , Yiannis Tsompanakis

Full record


URI: http://purl.tuc.gr/dl/dias/179AFFA1-3EC7-46BA-87AA-F49B48AE94DD
Year 2009
Type of Item Conference Full Paper
License
Details
Bibliographic Citation G.Papazafeiropoulos , P. Psarropoulos ,Y.Tsompanakis ," Retaining wall -soil - structure interaction effects due seismic excitation ,"in 17 International Conference on Soil Mechanics & Geotechnical Engineering.2009
Appears in Collections

Summary

Retaining walls are very frequently used in engineering practice to support, apart from soil layers,structures founded on the retained soil layers. During a seismic event it is evident that the dynamicresponse of each component of this complex system (i.e., wall, soil and structure) may affectsubstantially the response of the rest and vice versa. This phenomenon, which could be adequatelydescribed as “dynamic wall–soil–structure interaction” (DWSSI), is a rather complicated issue thatcombines: (a) the dynamic interaction between the wall and the retained soil layers, and (b) the“standard” dynamic interaction of a structure with its underlying soil layers. In the present study,using two-dimensional numerical simulations, the impact of the wall flexibility and structure stiffnesson the dynamic response of the overall system is investigated. Emphasis is given on the relationbetween the dynamic behavior of the overall system and the dynamic properties of each component(one-dimensional soil layer-structure and wall-soil-structure). Primarily, the response of a simplestructure lying on a single infinite soil layer is investigated. Subsequently, a retaining wall is includedin the numerical models. A parametric study is performed in order to examine at what extend thepresence of the wall may affect the amplification factors of the various components, and consequentlythe distress imposed on the structure (with respect to its position and its fundamental eigenperiod). Inaddition, the eigenperiod of the soil-structure system is calculated via analytical methods. Despite thefact that there exist many open issues to be resolved, the results of the current study provide a clearindication of the direct dynamic interaction between a retaining wall and an adjacent structure.Keywords: dynamic response, soil-structure interaction, amplification factor, soil spring.

Available Files

Services

Statistics