Abstract: The design of the model box for shaking table tests has a remarkable impact on their accuracy and reliability. The main defects of laminar shear model box are as follows: added mass, friction between the layers as well as maximum displacement limitation. Based on the shear beam method, a simplified soil-box model considering the interaction of soil columns and laminar shear model box is established. On the condition of the shear modulus evenly and exponentially distributed, the analytic solutions of the dynamic characteristics and responses are deduced respectively. Furthermore, the influencing factors, such as size and material, are discussed. The results show that the added mass makes the natural frequency of the soil-box model less than the soil column model, and the error of the frequency decreases with the increase of the box size. Besides, the test error from aluminum alloy box is obviously less than that of the steel box for the same size. On the basis of these, the requirements of the box size and material are given. The proposed method provides some reference for the design of suitable model box.