## 2 Materials and Methods  
### Description of the Designed and Constructed One-Dimensional 600N-Capacity Shaking Table  
The ST assembly consists of an H-section sliding mechanism (Figure 2a,b), an actuator (MS500-Series Modal Shakers, Tenlee Electric Group, Wenzhou, China), an amplifier (Series LA-500, Tenlee Electric Group, Wenzhou, China), and a 25 mm thick plywood upper base (measuring 520 mm \(\times\) 400 mm) screwed to the actuator and sliding mechanism with four M-8 bolts (Figure 2c,d). A 20 mm thick base plywood material measuring 1000 mm \(\times\) 450 mm (i.e., length \(\times\) breadth) houses the entire shaking table assembly and is connected to 4 nos of steel legs, with a 200 mm \(\times\) 200 mm cross-section filled with concrete to provide stability to the table as a reaction mass (Figure 3a). The amplifier powers the actuator, which moves the upper base plywood in a single degree of freedom (SDOF), simple harmonic motion. The ST assembly with the instrumented soil box (Figure 3b) operates according to the SDOF input ground motion theory. As per [11], Equation (1) is the governing physics for the motion vibration of a typical SDOF, shown schematically in Figure 4, based on [PERSON]'s 2 nd law.  
\[m\ddot{u}+c\dot{u}+ku=P(t) \tag{1}\]  
where \(P(t)\) is an externally applied dynamic load but here, \(P(t)=0\); \(m=\) mass of the soil model; \(\ddot{u}=\) horizontal acceleration; \(\dot{u}=\) horizontal displacement of the body; \(u=\) distance; \(k=\) spring of stiffness; \(c=\) viscous damping coefficient. Therefore, the sum of the inertia force, damping force, and spring force are equivalent to zero in Equation (1) for the equilibrium. The symbol dot notation signifies the required integral steps to achieve the symbolic variable.  
Figure 2: The sliding mechanism assembly for the shaking table. (**a**) Main parts of the sliding mechanism. (**b**) The sliding mechanism assembly. (**c**) The table and actuator assembly. (**d**) The adjustments and calibration of the shaking table.  
The designed, constructed, and instrumented rigid soil box (SB), made of a 5 mm thick plexiglass material, has a total internal dimensional capacity of 395 mm \(\times\) 295 mm \(\times\) 400 mm (i.e., length \(\times\) breadth \(\times\) height). The SB is brazed around its external corners/edges, with timber frames to complement its strength and rigidity when subjected to high shaking intensities. Ref. [12] suggested that an absorbing material should be installed on the model rigid container's internal transient boundaries to minimize the effects of the artificial boundaries on the soil model. Following the above work, a foam material with a thickness of 5 mm was installed on the soil box internal transient boundaries. Dry sands were also glued to the box's base to aid the generation of upward shear stresses/waves in the specimen-soil model (refer to Figure 3b).  
Printable rulers were glued to the inside of the container to accurately measure the container's internal size, soil sample heights, falling height during pluviation, and easy estimation of densities and water level. In addition, a data acquisition (DAQ) program was written in LabVIEW version 18.0.1 to develop an intuitive and interactive graphical user interface (GUI) for various inputs and outputs of the test setup.  
Figure 4: Mechanics of typical SDOF motion for earthquake ground motion modeled on [11]. (**a**) The typical mass–spring–damper (MSD) model. (**b**) The free-body diagram (FBD) of the shaker setup.  
Figure 3: The shaking table setup and main components. (**a**) The shaking table assembly. (**b**) The designed and fabricated soil rigid box/container.