Lateral displacement control of modular-block reinforced soil retaining walls under horizontal seismic loading

Abstract

This paper presents experimental results from shaking table tests on two reduced-scale geogrid reinforced soil retaining wall (RSRW) constructed using standard soil, modular facing blocks, and uniaxial geogrid reinforcement to investigate the distribution of the lateral displacement, observe the failure mode of the RSRW, and analyse the lateral displacement control index under seismic loading. Similitude relationships for shaking table tests in a 1 g gravitational field were used to scale the specimen geometry and characteristics of the earthquake motions. The displacement modes of two RSRW are combined translation and rotation. Considering various displacement control indexes and the test results, a lateral displacement control index of 3.8% H in seismic damage of modular-block RSRW is proposed. The seismic damage-assessment criteria of the modular-block RSRW are defined and divided into four levels: basically intact, slightly damaged, moderately damaged, and destroyed.