Abstract
This study presents experimental results from shaking table tests on a reduced-scale geogrid reinforced soil retaining wall (RSRW) to investigate the seismic response of the fundamental frequency, acceleration amplification, face displacement, backfill surface settlement, and reinforcement strain under different peak accelerations and durations. The fundamental frequency is in good agreement with the predicted values. The root mean square (RMS) acceleration amplification factors increase nonlinearly with the wall height and decrease with increasing seismic load, which is not regarded as a constant value. The distributions of the peak displacement are consistent with those of the residual displacement. The combination of the sliding and rotation is observed as the predominant mode of displacement, and the rotation mode is dominant. The positions near the face (35 cm) and the ends of the reinforcement (140 cm) demonstrated larger settlement than that of the central position (70 cm and 105 cm). The reinforcement strain increased with increasing peak acceleration and maximum values measured at the central layers. The trends of the potential failure surface are similar to those of the 0.3H bilinear failure surface. The friction coefficient is nonlinearly distributed along with the reinforcements, and the maximum friction coefficient appears at the top layer (F11).
Highlights
A large number of geosynthetic reinforced soil retaining walls (RSRWs) have been used in highways and industrial, military, commercial, and residential areas owing to their many merits in terms of costs, performance, aesthetics, and durability in recent years [1,2,3]. e excellent seismic performance offered by RSRWs has been demonstrated in active earthquake areas [4,5,6]
The seismic design of geosynthetic reinforced soil (GRS) structures is an important issue in countries that experience earthquakes, and a seismic design procedure that is better than the old-fashioned Mononobe-Okabe pseudostatic analysis is required [10]
A geogrid RSRW with a modular-block face is built and tested using a large 1 g shaking table test. e peak acceleration of excitation is varied to examine the effects on the seismic response and the working mechanism of the RSRW. e quantitative and qualitative response of the RSRW to base shaking in terms of the fundamental frequency, acceleration amplification, face displacement, backfill surface settlement, and reinforcement strains are identified and presented
Summary
A large number of geosynthetic reinforced soil retaining walls (RSRWs) have been used in highways and industrial, military, commercial, and residential areas owing to their many merits in terms of costs, performance, aesthetics, and durability in recent years [1,2,3]. e excellent seismic performance offered by RSRWs has been demonstrated in active earthquake areas [4,5,6]. The seismic design of geosynthetic reinforced soil (GRS) structures is an important issue in countries that experience earthquakes, and a seismic design procedure that is better than the old-fashioned Mononobe-Okabe pseudostatic analysis is required [10] It is Advances in Civil Engineering essential to comprehensively understand the seismic behavior of RSRWs. e seismic behavior of RSRWs has been investigated by different researchers through postearthquake investigations, model tests, and numerical simulations. A geogrid RSRW with a modular-block face is built and tested using a large 1 g shaking table test. e peak acceleration of excitation is varied to examine the effects on the seismic response and the working mechanism of the RSRW. e quantitative and qualitative response of the RSRW to base shaking in terms of the fundamental frequency, acceleration amplification, face displacement, backfill surface settlement, and reinforcement strains are identified and presented
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