SHAKING AND TILT-TABLE TESTS OF GEOSYNTHETIC-REINFORCED SOIL AND CONVENTIONAL-TYPE RETAINING WALLS

A series of shaking table tests was performed on relatively small-scal e rnodels of a geosynthetic-reinforced soil retaining wall with a full -height rigid facing and conventional type (gravity-type, leaning-type , and cantilever-type) retaining walls. Tilt table tests were also con ducted on the geosynthetic-reinforced soil retaining wall and the lean ing-type model walls. The seismic stability of these different types o f walls are evaluated by both shaking and tilt table test methods and compared with each other. The observed critical seismic acceleration c oefficients are compared with the values predicted by the conventional pseudo-static approach. Similarly, the observed failure plane angles in the backfill are compared with the predicted values. The effects of simple shear deformation of the reinforced backfill for the reinforce d-type walls and the effects of post-peak reduction of shear resistanc e along the failure plane are also discussed.