Study on dynamic earth pressure of reinforced soil retaining walls under harmonic wave by model test

Inertia force and dynamic earth pressure have remarkable influence on the stability of reinforced soil retaining walls under dynamic loading. Although the existing calculation methods provide rules and suggestions for calculation of the dynamic earth pressure of reinforced soil retaining walls under dynamic loading, a large number of engineering practices show that the methods are excessively conservative and they are distinctly different from each other. In order to study the dynamic earth pressure of reinforced soil retaining walls under dynamic loading, a shaking table model test was carried out by harmonic wave loading. According to the time history of values recorded during the test, similarities and differences between values tested and calculated by the current methods were analyzed. The following conclusions have been obtained: because when the earth pressure reaches peak values, the wall facing moves back to the fillings, so the peak values cannot be directly used to analyze the active failure of the wall under dynamic loading; the inertial force and the dynamic earth pressure do not reach peak values at the same time, and there is a phase difference between them; the distribution of the earth pressure along the wall height and its height of interaction point are similar to the M-O method and the S-W method respectively, and the test value is much smaller than the value calculated by the above methods; when the wall reaches a active state, the earth pressure at the end of reinforcements is negative, so the earth pressure is smaller than that without dynamic loading. © 2018, Science Press. All right reserved.