In the current earthquake design procedure, the Mononobe-Okabe theory is widely used to predict the seismic earth pressure acting on the retaining walls. Although the seismic earth pressure is caused by the dynamic interaction between the backfill soil and the retaining wall, this theory assumes the state of the limit equilibrium of the backfill and calculates the seismic earth pressure under the static condition. In this study, therefore, a series of shaking table model tests has been performed in order to investigate the effect of seismic stability of retaining wall on seismic earth pressure. The experiments have revealed that by considering the dynamic response of retaining walls, the seismic earth pressure under large earthquake load can be calculated more rationally than the Mononobe-Okabe theory.

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