Design and Verification Test of Quasi-Static Pushover Model Container

Abstract

Abstract Laboratorial testing methods for exploring seismic response mechanism of underground structures usually consist of conventional shaking table test and centrifuge shaking table test. The types of model containers employed to investigate the seismic response mechanism of underground structures during dynamic tests include rigid, flexible and laminar shear model containers, all of them have some drawbacks. It is essential to choose an appropriate model container in terms of test requirement, according to the quasi-static pushover testing method a novel model container was proposed. A set of quasi-static pushover tests were conducted to verify the performance of the new container. The experimental results show that the designed model container can effectively simulate the most unfavourable deformation mode of invert triangle in push direction, which means that quasi-static testing method with this model container can be applied to evaluate seismic response of underground structures, furthermore, the deep-buried condition is also can be simulated.