Dynamic behavior of single-anchored retaining structures under three different ground motions: A comparison between numerical analyses and simplified approaches

The design of embedded retaining structures under seismic conditions is a challenging geotechnical problem. Simplified pseudo-static approaches are often adopted but they do not take into consideration the real performance of the structure during earthquake conditions. Italian building code (NTC) does not deal all aspects involved in the design. This paper shows a numerical study with Plaxis 2D through full dynamic analyses to analyze the soil-structure interaction. Three seismic signals and three different stiffness of the structures were adopted to investigate the behavior of a singly-anchored embedded retaining structures. Results from these numerical analyses in terms of contact horizontal stresses, displacements and bending moments on the structures were compared to those obtained by the pseudo-static approaches.