The accelerations and deformations were measured using accelerometers and displacement transduces
such as laser sensors and LVDT sensors, respectively. From Figs. 2a, 3a and 4a, the acceleration
sensors were positioned at predefined locations during layer by layer construction of the
reinforcements. One accelerometer was attached to the container base to measure base acceleration,
and another accelerometer was attached to the top of the wall to measure response acceleration. The
response accelerations of reinforced backfill zone were measured by three accelerometers from top to
bottom, and the last accelerometer was positioned at the unreinforced backfill zone. Facing
deformation was measured using laser sensors attached to rigid bars which were fastened to the soil
container. Deformation of the facing was measured at three points from top to bottom as shown in Figs.
2a, 3a and 4a. The settlements of the backfill behind the wall were also measured using three vertical
LVDT sensors connected to the soil container frame with stiff beams. To isolate the friction effect of
side wall, all parameters were measured at the middle of the physical model on a line parallel to the
side wall. The data from all instrumentation were collected at a high sampling rate (100 Hz) to avoid
aliasing errors and to capture the peak values of dynamic wall response during base excitation.
Each retaining wall models was subjected to harmonic sinusoidal base acceleration motion at
predominant frequency of 5 Hz having twenty cycles per stage. The acceleration amplitude was
increased stage by stage with a target increment of 100 gal from 100 gal to until the failure or collapse occurs