Seismic response analysis of reinforced earth retaining structures

Geosynthetic reinforced soil (GRS) walls have become an important applications of retaining structures in earthquake prone Asia areas such as Taiwan and Japan. During the magnitude 7.3 Chi-Chi earthquake, a few GRS walls collapsed and some others survived. These case histories provide a unique opportunity to study seismic performance of GRS walls. In this paper, the authors first present a numerical model that is capable of simulating dynamic response of GRS walls. A selected GRS wall case, that failed during the 921 Chi-Chi earthquake, is then studied with the developed model and real earthquake records in an effort to observe seismic performance of GRS walls. Moreover, influences of earthquake characteristics on seismic performance of GRS walls are also examined. Conclusions and discussion of this paper are hope to be helpful to the seismic design of GRS walls.