Combined Influence of Wave and Earthquake Loading on External Stability of Waterfront Reinforced Soil Wall

Waterfront reinforced soil walls (WRSWs) are susceptible to various modes of failure mechanism under dynamic loading conditions developed by earthquakes and water waves near the coastal regions. This study presents an external stability analysis of WRSWs founded on cohesive-frictional soil strata, subjected to both earthquake and wave forces. A simple pseudo-static approach was used for the stability analysis of the wall and to assess the minimum reinforcement length required against different failure modes using a limit equilibrium method for various design parameters including horizontal and vertical seismic acceleration coefficients [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], pore pressure ratio [Formula: see text], cohesion of soil [Formula: see text], wave height [Formula: see text], and wavelength [Formula: see text]. Critical stability was defined when the safety factor reached unity. From the analysis, it is observed that the requirement of geosynthetic reinforcement increases with an increase in the level of water in the backfill along with an increase in the ratio of wave height to the depth of water and an increment in the value of [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]. Conversely, an increase in the cohesion component in backfill soil [Formula: see text] demonstrates a significant reduction in the total required reinforcement length 74.65% and 80.46% for [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], respectively, at [Formula: see text] and other constant parameters. This research addresses a critical gap by exploring the combined effect of seismic and wave loading on the external stability of WRSWs.