Robust geotechnical design of a retaining wall subjected to earthquake loads

A robust geotechnical design methodology for design of cantilever retaining wall subjected to earthquake is presented in this paper. Initial geotechnical designs were performed considering possible variations in backfill soil properties and earthquake loading parameters to establish upper and lower limits for the design variables. Then, dynamic finite element simulations were conducted on models for selected design cases to obtain the wall tip deflection-time histories. Considering the maximum wall tip deflection as the response of concern, a response surface was developed to establish a relationship between the response and the variables (random and design). Finally, a design optimization was conducted considering cost and robustness as the objectives. The standard deviation of the response and volume of wall were considered as the measure of robustness and cost, respectively. The optimization yielded a set of preferred designs known as Pareto front, and the optimal final design was then selected using knee point concept.