Dynamic centrifuge testing of cantilever retaining walls

Abstract

An investigation was made into the behavior of flexible cantilever walls retaining a cohesionless soil backfill and subjected to earthquake-type dynamic excitations using the centrifuge modelling technique. The study was motivated by the abundant observations of earth retaining structure damage and failures documented in earthquake damage reports. The "prototype" typical walls were designed using the traditional Mononobe-Okabe dynamic lateral earth pressure theory, were properly scaled for use in the centrifuge at 50 g's, and were subjected to lateral earthquake-like motions which were considered to be of realistic levels. The walls were amply instrumented with pressure and displacement transducers, accelerometers, and strain gages. Moment, pressure, shear, and displacement distributions (static, dynamic, and residual) were obtained. From the test data, some empirical curves for relating the upper bound responses of the retaining walls to the strong motion characteristics of the applied earthquakes were obtained.