Design of Waterfront-Retaining Walls Subjected to Waves and Earthquakes: A Review

This article discussed the various possible forces that can act on the waterfront-retaining wall during the earthquake and the available methodologies to compute them. The wave forces acting on the waterfront-retaining structures can be branched into non-breaking waves, breaking waves and broken waves. Hydrodynamic pressure due to seismic shaking plays a vital role in the stability and must be considered from both seaward and landward sides if the backfill is permeable. Various guidelines available for the design of waterfront-retaining wall and their limitations are discussed. The recent modified pseudo-dynamic method overcomes limitations of the pseudo-static method and considers the effect of time, amplification and damping properties in the analysis. Consideration of excess pore pressure variation with time in the analysis is challenging and needs further research.