Shake Table Test to Investigate Seismic Response of a Slurry Wall

Abstract

This paper reports a reduced-scale shake table test investigating the seismic response of a slurry wall. Soil-cement-bentonite (SCB), a common type of slurry wall, was evaluated in this research. A section of a slurry wall of 1.68 m long, 0.20 m wide, and 1.60 m tall was constructed and tested on a one-dimensional shake table. A 1.50 m × 1.87 m × 1.80 m box was anchored on the shake table and contained the slurry wall and the sandy soil that was compacted on both sides of the wall. The slurry wall and the confining soil were instrumented with accelerometers, linear variable differential transformers (LVDT), linear potentiometers, and dynamic soil stress gauges to respectively record the accelerations, vertical and horizontal deformations of the wall, and transient dynamic soil pressures on the wall during the simulated seismic excitations. Scaled 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake motions were simulated by the shake table. The testing was an improvement over previous testing by the authors and implemented flexible boundaries and dynamic scaling laws. The shake table tests provided a preliminary understanding of the seismic performances of the SCB slurry wall in levees and earth dams.