The instrumented retaining wall facility at virginia polytechnicinstitute and state university (virginia tech), developed to study the factors that control the magnitudes of earth pressures induced by compaction of soil, is described. Previous investigations of earthpressures induced by compaction have shown that measuring earth pressures due to compaction is difficult because (1) earth pressure cells sometimes give erroneous readings, depending on their stiffness and how they are installed; (2) compaction-induced earth pressures vary rapidly with depth, resulting in misinterpretation if fill elevations are not accurately determined; (3) the large inherent variability in earth pressures results in possible erroneous evaluations if too few measurements are made; and (4) walls must be stiff and mounted on unyielding supports to measure earth pressures that are not influenced by wall movements. The experimental facility at virginia tech has been designed to overcome these problems and to achieve accurate measurements of compaction-induced earth pressures at a scale approaching field scale. The electronic instruments and the data acquisition system in the facility make it possible to perform efficient and accurate studies of earth pressures during and at the end of backfilling and their variation with time after backfilling. This facility offers promise for investigating aspects of the horizontal and vertical earth loads on retaining walls that are not reflected in conventional earth pressure theories but have significant effects on thestability and performance of retaining walls. This paper appears intransportation research record no. 1277, Modern geotechnical methods: instrumentation and vibratory hammers 1990.
Abstract