Seismic stability of fully saturated reinforced soil walls

摘要

This paper studies the effect of saturation of backfill on the seismic stability of reinforced soil wallsrn(RSWs) using centrifuge shaking table tests. For comparison, degradation of static stability and seismic stability ofrna RSW under unsaturated condition was also investigated. Test results showed that the RSW under saturatedrncondition had enough static stability. However, seismic stability of saturated RSW significantly decreased asrncompared with that under unsaturated condition. The saturated model RSW did not collapse, though it showedrnlarge deformation. It maintained sufficient stability after shakings although a clear slip surface appeared in thernbackfill. Finally, it is discussed how to evaluate residual stability of RSWs damaged by earthquakes with testrnresults and the simple evaluation method proposed by authors.