Dynamic Response of Reinforced Soil Retaining Wall Resting on Soft Clay

This paper presents the results of shaking table tests of wrap-faced reinforced soil retaining walls on soft clay soil and its numerical validation using PLAXIS3D. The influence of backfill relative density on the dynamic response has been studied through a series of shaking table tests on wrap-faced retaining walls. The height of the wrap-faced retaining wall is 0.4 m. Construction of model retaining walls within a laminar box mounted on shaking table, instrumentation, and results from the shaking table tests are described in detail. Wrap-faced walls have been tested for a fixed acceleration (0.05 g), fixed frequency (5 Hz), and fixed surcharge (1.72 kPa) for different backfill relative densities (48%, 64%, and 80%). These models have also been verified by numerical analysis using PLAXIS3D. The output results from both the experiments, and numerical analyses have shown that the walls constructed with higher backfill relative density have lower face deformations, pore water pressure, strain, and acceleration amplification compared to the walls constructed with lower relative densities. A generalized equation has been proposed to predict normalized face displacement from the relative density. The results obtained from this study are helpful in understanding the relative performance of reinforced soil retaining walls subjected to dynamic loading.