Simple Rigid Plastic Model for Seismic Tilting of Rigid Walls

A relatively simple rigid plastic model for evaluating the seismic displacement of rigid retaining walls resting in dry cohesionless soils is presented. The wall displacement caused by both the sliding and tilting modes of deformation is obtained in a coupled manner. The applicability of the proposed model is illustrated using sinusoidal and real earthquake excitations. Wall displacements computed ignoring the tilting mode of deformation can be substantially lower than those computed incorporating it. Results of a parametric study show that the wall response can be influenced by the wall friction, the frequency of excitation, and the vertical component of excitation.