Shaking table testing of geofoam seismic buffers

The paper describes the experimental design and results of tests used to investigate the use of compressible EPS (geofoam) seismic buffers to attenuate dynamic loads against rigid retaining wall structures. The tests were carried out using 1-m-high models mounted on a large shaking table. Three different geofoam buffer materials retaining a sand soil were tested under idealized dynamic loading conditions. The results of these tests are compared to a nominal identical structure without a seismic buffer. The test results demonstrate that the reduction in dynamic load increased with decreasing seismic buffer density. For the best case reported here, the maximum dynamic force reduction was 31% at a peak base acceleration of 0.7g.