Seismic Soil Pressures on Rigid Walls Subjected to Pulse-Like Earthquake Ground Motions
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 148, Issue 11
Abstract
Pulse-like earthquakes are believed to impose larger structural demands on structures due to the sudden release of seismic energy. This can cause concern in areas that are near faults due to the possibility of structures not being designed to withstand higher seismic demands and could be significant for embedded retaining walls in nuclear power plants. A finite element model of a soil-embedded wall is developed to examine the non-linear response of this system to pulse-like earthquake ground motions. For the finite element analysis, the open-source program OpenSees version 3.3 is used for the simulation of an embedded rigid retaining wall. The analyses are performed using records that match narrow-band modified target spectra for different moment magnitude scenarios ranging from 5.03 to 7.70. The results from pressure methods will be compared with the full non-linear finite element model results. Generally, it is observed that this type of earthquake imposes larger demands on an embedded rigid retaining wall, but the magnitude of the demand is still comparable to normal ground motions.
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Data Availability Statement
Some of the data and models that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. These include: (1) models in OpenSees, and (2) output results from the program.
Acknowledgments
This work was performed under award NRC-HQ-60-17-G-0033 from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
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Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 148 • Issue 11 • November 2022
Copyright
© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 18, 2021
Accepted: Jun 24, 2022
Published online: Sep 8, 2022
Published in print: Nov 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Feb 8, 2023
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