Identification of dynamic soil properties through shaking table tests on a large saturated sand specimen in a laminar shear box

Many laminar shear boxes have recently been developed into sliding-frame containers that can reproduce 1D ground-response boundary conditions. The measured responses of such large specimens can be utilized to back-calculate soil properties. This study investigates how the boundary effect in large specimens affects the identified soil properties through shaking table tests on a soil-filled large laminar box conducted at the National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering in Taiwan. The tested soil-box system is unique because only 80% of the container is filled with soil. This system can be regarded as a two-layer system: an empty top and soil-filled bottom. The dynamic properties of this two-layer system are identified through various approaches, including theoretical solutions of wave propagation, free vibration, and nonparametric stress–strain analyzes. Therefore, the coupling effect of the box and soil can be evaluated. Results show that, compared with the two-layer system considering the influence of the box, the conventional approach with a single-layer system slightly underestimates shear wave velocity but obtains the same damping ratio of the soil layer. In addition, the identified modulus reduction and damping curves in the two-layer system are consistent with those obtained in a laboratory test on a small specimen. Furthermore, based on detailed acceleration measurements along different depths of soil, a piecewise profile of shear wave velocity is built. The identified shear wave velocity increases with depth, which is not uniform and differs from the constant velocity typically assumed for the specimen.