dynamic analysis of sand embankment by shaking table test

The dynamic behavior of a wrap-around sand embankment has been carried out experimentally through a physical model test using a shaking table. the main objective of this research was to use a pluviator device to prepare sand beds and wrap-around sand embankment having a fixed relative density and conduct experimental analysis by a shaking table to obtain the deformation and other parameters of the developed system. in this regard, a portable travelling pluviator was used to prepare sand beds having different relative densities for the shaking table study. a 408 mm-high wrap-faced retaining wall model has been constructed in a plexiglas container of 1.79 m × 0.46 m × 0.57 m by considering the prototype to model scale factor, n = 10 where, the height of the prototype wall considered is 4 m. the relative densities of sylhet sand used are 48%, 64% and 80%. tests are performed by applying three different surcharge pressures 0.7 kpa, 1.12 kpa and 1.72 kpa. sinusoidal peak input motions for the three base accelerations are 0.1 g, 0.15 g and 0.2 g. from the test results, it has been observed that the acceleration amplification is inversely proportional to the surcharge load and proportional to the base acceleration. it is also observed that the acceleration amplifications for 0.7 kpa and 1.12 kpa surcharge load test at normalized height of 0.5 are 5.9% and 2% higher than the 1.72 kpa surcharge load test, respectively, for the sand model. moreover, face displacement at different elevations decreases with an increase of the surcharge pressure and increases with the increase of the base acceleration. the output of the study will be helpful for the understanding of the dynamic behavior of sand embankment and development of the design manual for the construction of the resilient embankment. © the author(s), under exclusive licence to the iran university of science and technology 2023.