Effect of Acceleration on Wrap Faced Reinforced Soil Retaining Wall on Soft Clay by Performing Shaking Table Test

Ripon Hore; Sudipta Chakraborty; Ayaz Mahmud Shuvon; Mehedi Ahmed Ansary

doi:10.46604/peti.2020.4485

Authors

Ripon Hore Department of Civil Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Sudipta Chakraborty Bangladesh Network Office for Urban Safety (BNUS), Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Ayaz Mahmud Shuvon Bangladesh Network Office for Urban Safety (BNUS), Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Mehedi Ahmed Ansary Department of Civil Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.46604/peti.2020.4485

Keywords:

reinforced embankment, soft clayey soil foundation, input acceleration, sinusoidal input motions, input frequency, surcharge load, pore water pressure, shaking table test

Abstract

This research incorporates shaking table testing of scale wrap faced soil wall models to evaluate the seismic response of embankment. Currently the seismic designs of highway or railway embankment rely on little or no empirical data for calibrating numerical simulations. This research is working towards filling that empirical data gap. The specific purpose of the study was to evaluate the seismic response of constructed embankment model regarding the different input base accelerations with fixed frequency. A series of one-dimensional (1D) shaking table tests (0.05g, 0.1g, 0.15g and 0.2g), were performed on a 0.4 meters high wrap faced reinforced-soil wall model. Additionally, it was placed over 0.3 meters high soft clayey foundation. Predominantly, the influence of the base acceleration on the seismic response was studied in this paper. The physical models were subjected to harmonic sinusoidal input motions at a fixed frequency of 1 Hz, in order to assess the seismic behavior. The effects of parameters such as acceleration amplitudes and surcharge pressures on the seismic response of the model walls were considered. The relative density of the backfill material was kept fixed at 60%. The results of this study reveal that input accelerations and surcharge load had significant influence on the model wall, pore water pressure, and changes along the elevation. Acceleration response advances with the increase in base acceleration, so the difference being more perceptible at higher elevations. The pore water pressures were found to be high for high base shaking and low surcharge pressures at higher elevations. The results obtained from this study are helpful in understanding the relative performance of reinforced soil retaining wall under different test conditions resting on soft clay.

References

S. Denine, N. Della, M. R Dlawar, F. Sadok, J. Canou, and J. C. Dupla, “Effect of geotextile reinforcement on shear strength of sandy soil: laboratory study,” Studia Geotechnica et Mechanica, vol. 38, no. 4, pp. 3-13, 2016.

H. Aldeeky, O. Al Hattamleh, and B. A. Alfoul, “effect of sand placement method on the interface friction of sand and geotextile,” International Journal of Civil Engineering, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 133-138, March 2016.

A. Joghataie and M. S. Dizaji, “Transforming results from model to prototype of concrete gravity dams using neural networks,” Journal of Engineering Mechanics, vol. 137, no. 7, pp. 484-496, February 2012.

T. S. Ueng, M. H. Wang, M. H. Chen, C. H. Chen, and L. H. Peng, “A large biaxial shear box for shaking table test on saturated sand,” Geotechnical Testing Journal, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 1-8, June 2005.

A. Turan, S. D Hinchbergerand, and H. El Naggar, “Design and commissioning of a laminar soil container for use on small shaking tables,” Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 404-414, February 2009.

A. H.Humaish, M. S. Shamkhi, and T. K. Al-Hachami, “Design, manufacturing and testing of small shaking table,” International Journal of Engineering & Technology, vol. 7, no. 4.20, pp. 426-430, 2018.

K. T. Chau, C. Y. Shen, and X. Guo, “Nonlinear seismic soil-pile-structure interactions: shaking table tests and FEM analyses,” Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 300-310, February 2009.

M. Yazdandoust, “Study on seismic performance of reinforced soil walls to modify the pseudo static method,” International Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering, vol. 9, no. 9, pp. 1248-1259, 2015.

H. I. Ling, Y. Mohri, D. Leshchinsky, B.Christopher, K.Matsushima, and H. Liu, “Large-scale shaking table tests on modular-block reinforced soil retaining walls,” Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, ASCE, vol. 131, no. 4, pp. 465-476, April 2005.

N. Srilatha, G. M.Latha, and C. G. Puttappa, “Effect of frequency on seismic response of reinforced soil slopes in shaking table tests,” Geotextiles and Geomembranes, vol. 36, pp. 27-32, February 2013.

A. Edinçliler and Y. S. Toksoy, “Shake table tests to measure the dynamic performance of geotextile-reinforced embankment,” PeriodicaPolytechnica Civil Engineering, vol. 61, no. 4, pp. 803-814, February 2017.

M. Yazdandoust, “Investigation on the seismic performance of steel-strip reinforced-soil retaining walls using shaking table test,” Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, vol. 97, pp. 216-232, June 2017.

Z. Zhou, J. Lei, S. Shi, and T. Liu, “Seismic response of aeolian sand high embankment slopes in shaking table tests,” Applied Sciences, vol. 9, no. 8, p. 1677, April 2019.

F. Goktepe, E. Celebi, and A. J. Omid, “Numerical and experimental study on scaled soil-structure model for small shaking table tests,” Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, vol. 119, pp. 308-319, April 2019.

E. Çelebi, F. Göktepe, and A. J. Omid, “Seismic soil response of scaled geotechnical test model on small shaking table,” Arabian Journal of Geosciences, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 44, January 2019.

F Goktepe, AJ Omid, and E Celebi, “Scaled soil-structure interaction model for shaking table testing,” Acta Physica Polonica A, vol. 132, no. 3, pp.588-590, 2017.

J. Chen, X. Shi and J. Li, “Shaking table test of utility tunnel under non-uniform earthquake wave excitation,” Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, vol. 30, no. 11, pp. 1400-1416, November 2010.

W. Cai, B. Yu, and S. Kaewunruen, “Shaking table tests of suspended structures equipped with viscous dampers,” Applied Sciences, vol. 9, no. 13, pp. 1-16, June 2019.

J. Ye and L. Jiang, “Simplified analytical model and shaking table test validation for seismic analysis of mid-rise cold-formed steel composite shear wall building,” Sustainability, vol. 10, no. 9, pp. 1-18, September 2018.

M. Z. Hossain and M. A. Ansary, “Development of a portable traveling pluviator device and its performance to prepare uniform sand specimens,” Innovative Infrastructure Solutions, vol. 3, no. 1, p. 53, June 2018.

N. Z. M. Yunus, D. Wanatowski, N. A. Hassan, and A. Marto, “Shear strength and compressibility behavior of lime-treated organic clay,” KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering, vol. 20, no. 5, pp. 1721-1727, July 2019.

A. M. Krishna and G. M. Latha, “Seismic response of wrap-faced reinforced soil retaining wall models using shaking table tests,” Geosynthetics International, vol. 14, no. 6, pp. 355-364, September 2007.

M. El Sawwaf and A. K. Nazir, “Behavior of repeatedly loaded rectangular footings resting on reinforced sand,” Alexandria Engineering Journal, vol. 49, no. 4, pp. 349-356, December 2010.

E. Cicek, E. Guler, and T. Yetimoglu, “Effect of reinforcement length for different geosynthetic reinforcements on strip footing on sand soil,” Soils and Foundations, vol. 55, no. 4, pp. 661-677, August 2015

M. Zarringol, and M. Zarringol, “Study on the impact of sand-clay bond in geo-grid and geo-textile on bearing capacity,” Journal of Sustainable Development, vol. 9, no. 6, pp. 83-95, November 2016.

E. Cicek, E. Guler, and T. Yetimoglu, “Effects of the First reinforcement depth on different types of geosynthetics,” Scientia Iranica, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 167-177, 2019.

M. Sabermahani, A. Ghalandarzadeh, and A. Fakher, “Experimental study on seismic deformation modes of reinforced-soil walls,” Geotextiles and Geomembranes, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 121-136, April 2009.

G. M. Latha and A. M. Krishna, “Seismic response of reinforced soil retaining wall models: influence of backfill relative density,” Geotextiles and Geomembranes, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 335-349, August 2008.

R. Hore, M. R. Arefin, and M. A. Ansary, “Development of zonation map based on soft clay for Bangladesh,” Journal of Engineering, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 13-18, March 2019.

K. Watanabe, Y. Munaf, J. Koseki, M. Tateyama, and K. Kojima, “Behavior of several types of model retaining walls subjected to irregular excitation,” Soils and Foundations, vol. 43, no. 5, pp. 13-27, 2003.

M. M. El-Emam, and R. J. Bathurst, “Influence of reinforcement parameters on the seismic response of reduced-scale reinforced soil retaining walls,” Geotextiles and Geomembranes, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 33-49, February 2007.

H. I. Ling, Y. Mohri, D. Leshchinsky, C. Burke, K. Matsushima, and H. Liu, “Large scale shaking table tests on modular-block reinforced soil retaining walls,” Journal of Geotechnical and Geo environmental Engineering, vol. 131, no. 4, pp. 465-476, April 2005.

Z. Zhang, C. Cho, Q. Pan, and X. Lu, “Experimental investigation on excess pore water pressure in soft soil-foundations under minor shocks,” International Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 259-263, 2009.