Seismic Rotational Displacements of Gravity Quay Walls Considering Excess Pore Pressure in Backfill Soils

The effect of excess pore pressure developed in backfill soil during earthquake is an important consideration in rotational displacement prediction of gravity quay walls. Based on Newmark’s sliding block concept and stress-based excess pore pressure model, a new method is proposed to predict the critical rotational acceleration and angular acceleration time histories considering the development process of excess pore pressure in earthquake events. Then, the rotational displacement of gravity quay walls is predicted according to the calculated angular acceleration time histories. By using the proposed method, the effects of various parameters involved in the calculation have been studied by carrying out a parameter study. Analysis results reveal that the influence of excess pore pressure on the rotational displacement of gravity quay walls with saturated backfill soil is significant, so, can not be ignored; and rotational displacement is sensitive to the magnitude of earthquake, horizontal and vertical seismic accelerations of ground motion, wall and soil friction angle, and soil relative density. When the rotation and sliding of wall occur simultaneously, rotation and sliding will be inhibited by each other.