2024 Volume 10 Issue 25 Pages 914-917
This paper presents an experimental study of shaking table tests on two back-to-back mechanical stabilized earth (MSE) walls with different width-to-height ratios (RWH) of RWH = 1.6 and 1.1, to investigate the influence of RWH on the dynamic response. The reduced-scale MSE wall models were designed according to the similitude relationships considering model geometry, reinforcement stiffness, and input motions. The back-to-back MSE wall models were constructed using poorly graded backfill soil and geogrid reinforcement, and then were excited using a series of sinusoidal input motions with increasing acceleration. Results indicate that the incremental facing displacements and residual facing displacements of the two back-to-back MSE walls increase significantly with increasing input acceleration. For the back-to-back MSE walls with RWH = 1.6, the predominant facing deformation mode is rotation for smaller input acceleration. However, the deformation mode becomes bulging with the highest displacement near the mid-height for higher accelerations. For the back-to-back MSE walls with RWH = 1.1, the predominant facing deformation mode is rotation during shaking. Back-to-back MSE walls with small RWH exhibited better seismic performance under the same input motions.
