Effect of Rayleigh waves on the seismic stability of reinforced soil wall

Design of reinforced soil wall in the present scenario is either based on the pseudo-static or pseudo-dynamic approach in seismic conditions. Most of the studies have been done to consider soil as cohesionless using both the approaches. For c-phi backfill, the behavior of reinforced soil walls under seismic conditions using the pseudo-dynamic approach is still very limited considering the propagation of primary and shear waves. Analytical methods to analyze the seismic stability of reinforced soil walls showing the effect of Rayleigh waves are not available till date. In the present study, the pseudo-dynamic approach has been used to find out the seismic behavior of reinforced soil wall considering the propagation of primary, shear and Rayleigh waves. A mathematical derivation is proposed to obtain the required strength of reinforcements, the critical inclination of the failure angle and safety factor of reinforced soil wall. From the results obtained from the parametric study, non-linear distribution of tensile forces in the reinforcements can be easily achieved for the case of c-phi backfill. Moreover, the results of the present study show the significant effect of the period of lateral shaking on the critical inclination of failure angle and required the strength of reinforcements. Comparison with available studies in the literature without considering Rayleigh waves, the results obtained in the present study are in good agreement.