New seismic parameters in the analysis of retaining walls with reinforced backfill

A new analytical method is presented to determine the extension force of reinforcements and the distribution of reinforced mass pressure in the determination of active earth pressure on reinforced soil walls. The application of this approach suggests a pseudo-static method that compares with the results of MSEW software. Using the horizontal slices method, seismic accelerations at different heights of the soil structure are modeled. Reinforced soil pressure on retaining walls and the angle of critical failure wedge can be calculated using the developed formulation. It is shown that an increase in the horizontal seismic acceleration coefficient reduces the angle of the critical failure wedge, requiring the maximum extension force to be increased for each layer by using stronger and longer reinforcements. The results show that both vertical and horizontal seismic accelerations are essential coefficients for analysis of the required length and extension force of the reinforcements, since their importance increases with increases in the vertical and horizontal seismic accelerations. The height of the application point of the resultant pressure rises with an increase in the horizontal seismic acceleration coefficient.