Improving Seismic Performance of Retaining Structures Using a Sustainable Geomaterial
Improving Seismic Performance of Retaining Structures Using a Sustainable Geomaterial
Cost-effective, sustainable, and easily applicable solutions can be applied to the retaining walls to mitigate earthquake hazards. During an earthquake, the earth pressure on retaining walls significantly increases, resulting in excessive deformation and structural damage. The utilization of lightweight materials as vertical compressible layers, known as cushions, behind the retaining wall is an innovative approach to mitigate earthquake hazards. Waste tire-derived materials-sand mixtures and expanded polystyrene (EPS geofoam) are some of the lightweight materials used as cushions behind a retaining wall. This study aims to investigate the effects of tire content in the tire crumb-sand mixtures on the seismic performance of the retaining wall with a tire crumb-sand cushion by performing a series of shaking table tests. The experiments were carried out using a 1/25 scaled retaining wall model with or without a cushion layer in the rigid-sided soil box under the real earthquake motion. Two different tire crumb contents are considered cushion material. Shaking table test results showed that increasing tire crumb content has a significant influence on the seismic performance of the retaining wall with the lightweight compressible cushion layer.
Ayse Edincliler; Bilge Sultan Demirtas
21st International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (Vienna)
TC203
https://doi.org/10.53243/ICSMGE2026-1815
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