Shake Table Test of MSE Wall with Tire Derived Aggregates (TDA) Backfill

Abstract

This paper reports a shake table test on the seismic responses of geosynthetically reinforced wall with lightweight tire derived aggregates (TDA) as backfill. A section of reduced-scale MSE wall (1.5m high, 1.2m deep, and 1.5m long) was built in a box that was anchored on a onedimensional shake table. The scaled 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake excitations were replicated by the shake table. Dynamic similitude laws were followed in constructing the model test and in scaling the seismic excitations. Layers of geogrid were used as reinforcement, which was based on the static internal stability design of MSE walls. The MSE wall was tested with surcharge of 3.4 kN/m 2 . The wrap-around MSE wall was instrumented with accelerometers, linear variable differential transformers (LVDT), linear potentiometers, and dynamic soil stress gauges to respectively record the accelerations, wall vertical settlements, horizontal deflections of wall face, and transient effective stresses during the shaking. The results revealed satisfactory seismic performance of a geosynthetically reinforced wall with TDA backfill.