numerical investigation of gravity retaining wall foundation failure mechanisms

A. Kamalzadeh, M. Pender, 11th Pacific Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Auckland, April 2019


This research investigates the response of the gravity retaining walls subjected to monotonic and sinusoidal loadings, adopting the OpenSees finite element analysis. Recent research has shown the capacity of the shallow foundation supporting the wall controls the behaviour of the system, Pender (2018). Understanding the wall system failure mechanism can help us in seismic resistant design of gravity wall systems. There has been a controversy in the geotechnical engineering community on whether the failure mechanism initiates by rotational deformation or horizontal sliding.

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