Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Centrifuge Experiments of the Seismic Interaction of a Liquefiable Soil with a Cantilever Retaining Wall

The Liquefaction Experiments and Analysis Projects (LEAP) is an international collaboration to develop a databank of high-quality centrifuge experimental data and to use this data in calibration and validation of numerical tools of soil liquefaction and associated consequences. LEAP-2020 investigated the performance and seismic interaction of a liquefiable (Ottawa sand) soil with a cantilever retaining wall. A total of twenty-three centrifuge model tests were performed at eight centrifuge facilities, as part of a round robin testing program. The experimental results of these tests are published and shared in this archive as eight separate experiments (one experiment per centrifuge facility). Each “experiment” includes a number of tests and each model test includes one or multiple destructive input excitations. The conducted tests cover a broad range of soil relative densities and input motion conditions. These tests provide valuable information on the trends and sensitivity of the soil-retaining wall response to variations in shaking intensity and soil relative density. The eight centrifuge facilities involved in LEAP-2020 program included Ehime University (Japan), KAIST (Korea), Kyoto University (Japan), National Central University (Taiwan), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (USA), University of California Davis (USA), University of Cambridge (UK), and Zhejiang University (China). The “Experimental Data Archive Overview” document provides an outline of the associated organization.