Seismic soil pressure for building walls: An updated approach

The Mononobe-Okabe (M-O) method developed in the 1920s in Japan continues to be widely used despite many criticisms and its limitations. The method was developed for gravity walls retaining cohesionless backfill materials. In design applications, however, the M-O method, or any of its derivatives, is commonly used for below ground building walls. In this regard, the M-O method is one of the most abused methods in the geotechnical practice. Recognizing the limitation of the M-O method, a simplified method was recently developed to predict lateral seismic soil pressure for building walls. The method is focused on the building walls rather than retaining walls and specifically considers the dynamic soil properties and frequency content of the design motion in its formulation.