Abstract: “Knowledge of seismic passive earth pressures behind rigid retaining wall is very important. In this paper, the pseudo-dynamic approach, which considers the effect of primary and shear wave propagations, is adopted to calculate the seismic passive resistance of gravity retaining wall supporting c-Φ backfill. Considering the composite (combination of log-spiral and planar) failure mechanism, the effect of wall friction and soil friction angle, soil cohesion, shear wave and primary wave velocity, horizontal and vertical seismic coefficients are taken into account to evaluate the seismic passive resistance. Results as obtained from present analysis are compared with those given by other authors. It is shown that the pseudo-static methods considering planar rupture surface overestimates the passive earth pressure coefficients.”

Keywords: Pseudo-dynamic, seismic, passive resistance, composite rupture surface, c-Φ backfill, gravity retaining wall.