Impact of Structural and Yielding Factors on Retaining Walls Behavior

Volume: 11 | Issue: 02 | Year 2025 | Subscription
International Journal of Geological and Geotechnical Engineering
Received Date: 08/12/2025
Acceptance Date: 09/26/2025
Published On: 2025-09-27
First Page: 9
Last Page: 19

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By: Mahmood Ahmed and Abbas J. Al-Taie.

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Many factors are found to impact the behavior of retaining walls, RWs. These factors should be adopted in the design processes of these walls to satisfy the design requirements. They are linked to issues like structural behavior and yielding of the RWs. The major impacts of these factors are reviewed herein with some details. The reviewed factors exhibited that the yielding of RWs affects the design and modeling of RWs. The movement modes of these walls are related to their restraint condition under the different loading conditions. The shape of stress distribution due to lateral soil thrust behind RWs changes, according to the restraint degree, to produce a different resultant force with a centroid moved toward the middle of the wall. RWs prevented from movements need a higher safety factor against loading.  Although greater lateral stability (against certain dynamic loads) can be attained by using heavier RWs, a negative effect on stability can occur by increasing the inertial forces of the wall due to earthquake loading. Well—designed walls to sustain the static loading are proven to ensure good performance of such a wall under dynamic loading, with PGA limited to 0.4g, even when the seismic design is not considered. For RWs with an inclination toward backfill-side, some special considerations must be taken into account to avert the instability under earthquake shaking. For walls that derive their stability from the interaction between the soil and the mesh or strips included inside it, special measures related to the biological damages and environmental factors are necessary for structural stability.

Keywords: Interior stability, Non—Yielding, Equilibrium Mechanisms, Seismic Loading, Retaining Walls.

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Citation:

How to cite this article: Mahmood Ahmed and Abbas J. Al-Taie Impact of Structural and Yielding Factors on Retaining Walls Behavior. International Journal of Geological and Geotechnical Engineering. 2025; 11(02): 9-19p.

How to cite this URL: Mahmood Ahmed and Abbas J. Al-Taie, Impact of Structural and Yielding Factors on Retaining Walls Behavior. International Journal of Geological and Geotechnical Engineering. 2025; 11(02): 9-19p. Available from:https://journalspub.com/publication/ijgge/article=22312

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