Study on Seismic Vulnerability of the Back-to-Back MSE Walls Using Fragility Curves

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

• Maryam Rahimi ¹
• Alireza Firoozfar ²
• Hamid Alielahi ³

¹ Phd student, ,Department of Civil Engineering, University of Zanjan, Zanjan, Iran

² Department of Civil Engineering, University of Zanjan, Zanjan, Iran

³ Azad University of Zanjan Branch

10.22067/jfcei.2024.86346.1279

Abstract

In this research, the seismic behavior of the back-to-back MSE walls has been assessed in a probabilistic approach using the fragility curves and the effect of the overlapping length of the metal strips on the vulnerability of this type of walls has been investigated. To this end, the back-to-back MSE walls are simulated using FLAC2D finite difference program, and validated with a shaking table physical model test. So, using the results of nonlinear incremental analysis, fragility curves are analytically extracted based on PGA and PGV intensity measures under far-field and near-fault earthquakes. The obtained results, in addition to providing the possibility of predicting the vulnerability of the wall in different seismic intensities, indicate that increasing the length of the metal strips from 0.65 to 0.85 of the wall height (increasing the overlapping length from 0.3 to 0.7wall height), reduces the probability of seismic damage up to 35% in the far-field and by about 50% in the near-fault earthquakes, respectively.

Keywords

• Fragility curves"
• Back-to-back MSE walls"
• Seismic vulnerability"
• Numerical modeling "
• "
• Near Field and Far Field Earthquakes"

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