Influence of Reinforcement Connection Form on the Seismic Performance of Narrow Mechanically Stabilized Earth Walls

Narrow mechanically stabilized earth (NMSE) walls have been proposed and increasingly used in space-constrained environments, such as steep mountainous areas and dense urban areas. A NMSE wall is defined as a mechanically stabilized earth wall with an aspect ratio of less than 0.7 and constructed in front of a stable slope or existing wall, there is a complex interaction between the NMSE wall and the stable slope or existing wall due to various ways of reinforcement connection, and the influence of connection forms on the seismic performance of NMSE walls is still not clear. In this study, a shaking table test was first simulated by using an advanced dynamic finite element program called DBLEAVES. The validated FEM analysis was then employed to investigate the seismic behaviour of two NMSE walls with different reinforcement connection forms, one with reinforcements connected to a stable slope and the other without connections, named Case Connection and Case No-connection, respectively. The results show that the seismic stability of NMSE walls can be significantly improved by connecting the reinforcements and the stable slope behind the wall, and the connection force of reinforcement will increase with the increase of the input motion. The NMSE wall has an obvious differential settlement on crest in Case No-connection, however, there is a small uniform settlement in Case Connection.