Displacement-based aseismic design method for gravity retaining walls —— Large scale shaking table tests

The displacement-based design method is a frontier research topic in the aseismic field of geotechnical engineering. By means of large scale shaking table tests, the researches on displacement calculation modes of gravity retaining walls can provide supports for the displacement-based aseismic design method of gravity retaining walls. Firstly, the test scheme is introduced, including test equipments, mode design, testing procedures, seismic wave input and loading system. Secondly, the variation laws of displacements and displacement modes of retaining walls under different seismic intensities are studied, and then, the distribution of seismic earth pressure and its variation relationship with the displacement are also introduced. Based on Newmark's sliding block method and Zeng & Steedman's rotating block method, two models of sliding and rotating displacements are created separately. By comparing the calculated results of shaking table tests with those of empirical formulas, Whitman & Liao's mean fitting method is proposed to calculate the sliding displacement of gravity walls. Finally, the displacement-based aseismic design flow for gravity retaining walls is summarized.