Displacement-based seismic analysis of rigid retaining walls

Current pseudo-static analysis of rigid retaining walls requires the selection of an equivalent seismic coefficient keq synthetically representing the effects of the transient seismic actions on the wall-soil system. In the paper a rational approach for the selection of keq is proposed introducing an equivalence between the pseudostatic analysis and the displacement approach. The procedure for the evaluation of the equivalent seismic coefficient was developed for walls characterised by a sliding failure mode, assuming that the magnitude of earthquake-induced permanent displacements represents a proper parameter to assess the seismic stability condition of retaining walls.