Shaking table test on the characteristics of seismic acceleration responses at the portal section of the loess tunnel

A large-scale shaking table test was conducted to study the dynamic response at the portal section of a tunnel based on the loess tunnel of the Baoji–Lanzhou high-speed railway as an engineering background. A wavelet packet transform method was applied to analyze seismic acceleration responses. The pattern of changes in energy in the loess tunnel under the seismic load was obtained. Results reveal that (1) the acceleration amplification factor of the slope surface increases with elevation, but a turn exists at the inverted arch of the tunnel because the stiffness of the tunnel is greater than that of the slope soil. As such, the tunnel elicits a certain protective effect on the slope soil below it. (2) The amplification effect of the internal slope soil decreases gradually outward, and the tunnel portal is affected by the amplification effect of the slope surface. The peak ground acceleration (PGA) of the tunnel vault is greater than that of the inverted arch of the tunnel. Thus, the vicinity of the tunnel vault should be the key seismic fortification area. (3) The loess layer causes an amplification effect on low-frequency-band seismic waves (0–12.51 Hz) and a filtering effect on the high-frequency-band seismic waves. The changes in the energy of the slope surface and the inside tunnel gradually stabilize as the seismic load increases. This study can provide a reference for the seismic fortification of the tunnel portal section of the loess slope–tunnel system under a seismic action.