Performance of a Modified Shear Box Apparatus for Full Scale Laboratory Study of Segmental Retaining Wall Units

The paper outlines the performance of a modified large scale shear box apparatus, which is mainly used to execute full scale laboratory study of segmental retaining walls. A typical apparatus has already been adopted by the current ASTM and NCMA test protocols and by literature studying of those test protocols, it is found that protocols recommend a fixed vertical actuator with roller or airbag configuration as a proposed vertical loading assembly. Previous research study demonstrated that vertical loading arrangement greatly influences the interface shear capacity of block systems and fixed vertical actuator with flexible airbag shows better loading arrangement for the blocks which have dilatant behavior. However, airbag arrangement is strenuous and time-consuming loading assembly compared to fixed vertical actuator which increases normal load with shear displacement due to bending of vertical actuator locked with the top block during shear loading. For the drawbacks of fixed vertical loading arrangement, the apparatus used in this study was fully redesigned and modified in terms of normal loading arrangement specially. A moveable vertical loading assembly is used in the modified apparatus which allows the piston movement with the top blocks during shear testing. The results outlined in this paper report that normal load remains constant over the period of shear testing for a wide range of surcharge loading. It could easily be concluded that the modified apparatus might be a better alternative to the existing apparatus used in the test protocols.