Model Tests of Seismic Stability of Several Types of Soil Retaining Walls - Reinforced Soil Engineering: Advances in Research and Practice - page 323

6.3 Residual Displacement of Wall
Relationships between the seismic coefficient k h and the horizontal displacement
d top measured at a distance of 5 cm below the top of the wall are shown in Fig. 12.
For the shaking tests, the values of d top at the end of each shaking step are plotted.
In the sinusoidal shaking tests as well as the tilting tests, after exceeding about
25 mm, which corresponds to about 5% of the total wall height, the d top -value
increased very rapidly, soon resulting into the ultimate overall wall failure.
In the early steps of irregular shaking tests up to a k h -value of about 0.5, the
d top -value accumulated in a similar manner among different types of RWs. When
the k h -value exceeded about 0.5, however, the rate of increase in the d top -value
became larger for the three conventional-type RWs than for the three reinforced
soil-type RWs. Such different extents of ductility that depend on the RW type
will be discussed in the next two sections.
6.4 Reaction Force from Subsoil
Relationships between the reaction force from the subsoil and the horizontal
displacement d top near the top of wall are shown in Fig. 13 for gravity-type RW in
irregular shaking tests. The reaction forces were evaluated from the data
measured with loadcells when the base acceleration inducing outward inertia
force became its maximum in each shaking step. These reaction forces include
Figure 12 Accumulation of residual horizontal displacement near the top of wall.