Numerical modelling of MSE walls subjected to strong earthquake motions

Practice has shown that reinforced soil walls are able to withstand quite well seismic events. Their modularity and soil – reinforcement interaction allow them to experience significant deformation without failing. Nevertheless, up to now it has been a challenge to estimate the residual deformation of a MSE wall after an earthquake. The most common seismic design approach is the equivalence with a pseudostatic force. This approach is generally conservative and as such it may overestimate the displacements of the structure. The seismic action is a variable motion that changes amplitude, direction, and frequency. Moreover, the amount of motion that a MSE wall will experience depends on its size and stiffness (natural frequency and internal design). This article presents a numerical (finite differences model) analysis of a typical MSE wall using a real earthquake recording. The goal is to evaluate the structure response during and after the seismic motion in terms of deformation and reinforcement tension. A case with longer reinforcement is included for studying the effect of longer strips in the dynamic response of the wall. A comparison is done with pseudostatic force approach to highlight the differences in the results.