Stability of seawalls by considering non-breaking wave forces during earthquakes.

Abstract

Pseudo-static stability analysis has been carried out for seawall, supporting submerged cohesion less backfill under the combined actions of earthquake and non-breaking wave forces. Closed-form design solutions in terms of factor of safety against sliding and overturning modes of failures have been obtained by using the limit equilibrium method for active condition of earth pressure. From the sensitivity study, it is found that when the horizontal seismic acceleration coefficient is increased from 0 to 0.2, there is about 67% decrease in the factor of safety of the seawall in sliding mode. It is also observed that seismic horizontal acceleration, soil and wall friction angles and base friction angle significantly dominate the seismic stability of seawalls. Comparison of present results with a few specific available results in literature has indicated a very good agreement. The proposed design charts will be extremely useful for the seismic design of seawall against sliding and overturning modes of failure under the combined action of earthquake and non-breaking wave.