Hybrid T Walls under Seismic Loads

An innovative wall system with a reinforced concrete cantilever wall (or T wall) with mechanically stabilized backfill is proposed. The wall system, briefed as hybrid T wall (or HTW) retains the positive and removes the negative aspects of the performances of both reinforced concrete walls and MSE wall systems. HTW and its optimal dimensions were obtained inductively using the nonlinear finite element analyses through the seismic responses of six different wall types and varied HTW dimensions. Accelerograms of nine strong earthquakes of magnitudes between 6 through 8 Richter scale were used in the seismic response analyses of HTW. The strength of correlation between the seismic performances of HTW and earthquake strong motion parameters was investigated. The HTW performances were then expressed as the function of ground motion parameters with strong correlation through regression analyses for predicting the performance of HTW with known ground motion parameters and wall height. A comprehensive study is required to improve the wall performance prediction models.