Stability of Reinforced Retaining Wall under Seismic Loads

Based on the horizontal slice method (HSM) and assuming a log spiral slip surface, a method to analyze the stability of a reinforced retaining wall under seismic loads was established in this study by calculating the tensile force of the reinforcement. A parametric study was conducted on the normalized tensile force of the reinforcement, and it was observed that the normalized tensile force tends to increase with acceleration of the seismic load and the height of the backfill. Moreover, it also increases with soil unit weight, while it decreases with increased friction angle of the backfill soil, and the influence of soil cohesion on the normalized tensile force is not significant. The HSM method is proved to be suitable for analyzing the tensile force of reinforcement in retaining walls under seismic loads.