Improved Method for the Seismic Design of Anchored Steel Sheet Pile Walls
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 147, Issue 2
Abstract
This paper describes a new pseudostatic approach for an efficient seismic design of anchored steel sheet pile (ASSP) walls supported by shallow passive anchorages. As for other retaining structures, energy dissipation during strong earthquakes leading to reduced inertia forces can be achieved by allowing the activation of ductile plastic mechanisms. To this end, a robust method is required to identify all the possible yielding mechanisms and to guarantee the desired strength hierarchy. It is shown that dissipative mechanisms for ASSP walls correspond either to the local attainment of the soil shear strength in the supporting soil and around the anchor, or in the activation of a log-spiral global failure surface. A new limit equilibrium method is proposed to compute the critical acceleration of the system, corresponding to the actual mobilization of its strength, and the maximum internal forces in the structural members. Theoretical findings are validated against both existing dynamic centrifuge data and the results of original pseudostatic and fully dynamic numerical analyses.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
Part of this work was carried out while the first author was supported by a research grant from ArcelorMittal.
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Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 147 • Issue 2 • February 2021
Copyright
© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 23, 2019
Accepted: Aug 13, 2020
Published online: Nov 17, 2020
Published in print: Feb 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Apr 17, 2021
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