The Impact of Liquefaction on the Behavior of Retaining Walls is Studied

Abstract

Retaining walls constructed adjacent to underground water are the structures which may be influenced
by liquefaction. The design of these structures under vibration involves determining their displacements
and forces caused by earthquake and liquefaction phenomena. In this study, it is attempted to assess the
effect of liquefaction on the behavior of retaining walls using finite element method (FEM). The
OPENSEES software is used for this purpose, which can simulate the behavior of saturated porous
media using the u-P correlation formulation. Moreover, the Dafalias-Manzari critical state two-surface
plas- ticity behavioral model is applied to simulate the behavior of sand, which can model a variety of
behaviors of saturated sand in various uniaxial and cyclic loadings under drained and undrained
conditions for different relative densities. The results of this study suggest that the OPENSEES software
and Dafalias-Manzar behavioral model possess essential capabilities for numerical modeling of
behavior of retaining walls under liquefaction conditions. The presence of retaining walls also chang- es
the pattern of development of excess pore water pressure, particularly at middle depths of the wall.