Experimental design, instrumentation and interpretation of reinforced soil wall response using a shaking table

Abstract

A series of dynamic shaking table experiments were performed at the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) to investigate the seismic performance of reduced-scale reinforced soil walls constructed with different toe boundary conditions, facing panel configurations and reinforcement layouts. The models were 1 m high by 1.4 m wide by 2.4 m long and were constructed with a full-height rigid panel facing, a uniform sand backfill and multiple layers of polymeric geogrid reinforcement. The wall toe was constructed to simulate a perfectly hinged toe (i.e. the toe allowed to rotate only) in one series of models and an idealised sliding toe (i.e. the toe allowed to rotate and slide horizontally) in the other series. The model walls were instrumented to measure facing panel and soil backfill lateral displacement, reinforcement strains, horizontal and vertical toe loads, and both facing and backfill acceleration response. All the models were subjected to a horizontal stepped-amplitude sinusoidal base acceleration input. The paper is focused on the experimental design, material properties, instrumentation and the interpretation of results. Selected test results are presented to illustrate typical model response features. Finally, some implications to current seismic design practice are identified with respect to magnitude and distribution of reinforcement-facing connection loads and the influence of a structural facing and restrained toe boundary condition on wall response during base excitation.