Seismic Response of Geocell Retaining Walls Through Shaking Table Tests

Abstract

Performance of geocell retaining walls under seismic shaking conditions is studied in this paper. Shaking table tests on geocell retaining walls subjected to ground shaking conditions of different accelerations and frequencies are discussed. Retaining wall models of 600 mm height were constructed using a sand backfill with layers of geocells stacked one above the other to form the facing. Geocells in these tests were constructed using planar geonets by stitching them into a honeycomb network. Material used for making geocells, number of geocells in each layer, slope of the facing and infill material of geocells were varied in different tests. These geocell retaining walls were subjected to 100 cycles of sinusoidal base shaking at accelerations ranging between 0.2 and 0.3 g and frequency range of 1–7 Hz. Response of retaining walls was monitored in terms of acceleration amplifications and wall deformations at different elevations. It was observed that all geocell retaining walls were extremely strong to seismic shaking. Acceleration amplifications and displacements increased with increase in base acceleration or shaking frequency. It was observed that the detrimental effect of increasing ground motion parameters on the wall response was more significant than the beneficial effect of improvement in geocell parameters.