Advanced measurements on cantilever retaining wall models during earthquake simulations

摘要

Reinforced concrete cantilever retaining walls represent a popular type of retaining system. It is widely considered as advantageous over conventional gravity walls as it combines economy and ease in construction and installation. The concept is deemed particularly rational, as it exploits the stabilizing action of the soil weight over the footing slab against both sliding and overturning, thus allowing construction of walls of considerable height. Nevertheless, the issue of seismic behavior remains little explored. In fact many modern Codes, including the Eurocodes (Eurocode8-Part 5, 2003) and the Italian Building Code (NTC, 2008), do not explicitly refer to cantilever walls. Based on the recent theoretical findings (Kloukinas & Mylonakis, 2011; Evangelista et al., 2010) a series of shaking table tests were designed and conducted at the 6-DOF Earthquake Simulator of the Earthquake and Large Structures Laboratory (EQUALS) at the University of Bristol, UK.