Evaluating the Different Types of Analytical Methods of Piling Retaining Walls

ABSTRACT: Piling retaining walls as soil holder elements have a wide range of applications including slope stabilization of roads, protection of coastlines against erosion, controlling lateral extension in areas prone to liquefaction, stabilization of vertical trenches and protection against excavations. These types of retaining structures have load-deformation behavior of their own as flexible elements and they practically have extreme lateral deformation under the effect of lateral soil pressure because of their small thickness; the amount of their lateral deformation is a function of clamped length and also the characteristics of the soil behind. The stability analytical methods of geotechnical structures are generally divided into three categories including closed solution method, simple methods and numerical methods. In this article, after reviewing theories of soils dynamic lateral pressure, the performance of several methods including limit equilibrium method in the analysis of retaining walls are evaluated and then they are compared with the finite element method which is one of the conventional and known numerical methods.

Keywords: Retaining walls, dynamic analysis, Mononobe – Okabe, seismic behavior, finite element