Problem. In the modern practice of experimental research, there are no classical methods for determining the lateral pressure of the soil on a curved surface. There are studies on the determination of soil pressure on deep mines, but this experience cannot be applied to the setting of an experiment on the determination of soil pressure on a curved side surface due to the different specificities of the studies. At the same time, the results of my theoretical research determined a rational configuration of the retaining wall, which has a curvilinear shape. Goal. In order to confirm the theoretical results, there was a need to set up a laboratory experiment. Methodology. Due to the lack of similar studies, the author's method for determining the lateral pressure of the soil on a curved surface was developed. Based on the developed methodology, an experimental installation was designed in the form of a box with dimensions of 1600 × 700 × 800 mm. One of the walls of the box simulates a curved retaining wall. At the same time, due to the developed mechanism of the experimental installation, the curvature of the surface can be set at will. The surface is made of pliable sheet material, the application of which is pre-determined in a test experiment. The Leica TS07 laser total station was used as a measurement system in the experiment. Millet is used as bulk material. During the experiment, as the installation was loaded/unloaded, the characteristic movements of the platinum sensors, which are located on a curved surface, were recorded. Loading/unloading of the installation was performed 6 times, after which the averaged data were taken into analysis. Later, displacements were converted to distributed soil pressure, which was compared with theoretical data. Results. The qualitative distribution of the lateral pressure in the experimental studies was consistent with the theoretical one, however, the quantitative discrepancy lies in some areas of the surface height reaching 21.2%. In view of the above, the approbation of the installation and the approbation of the experimental methodology can be considered satisfactory.
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