Experimental study on the load bearing behavior of geosynthetic reinforced soil bridge abutments with different facing conditions

Zhang, Jun; Jia, Yafei; Guo, Wenhua; Jin, Zhen; Ling, Jianming; Zheng, Yewei

doi:10.1016/j.geotexmem.2022.03.004

Cited by 14 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Wu et al [ 26 ] evaluated the failure loads of two full-scale segmental-facing GRS abutments and pointed out that the design values were much smaller than the measured loads. In addition, several model tests published in literature [ 27 , 28 , 29 ] showed that different facing conditions have an influence on the performances of the GRS abutment. However, there are few studies considering the setback distance, i.e., the distance between the back of the abutment facing and the front of the loading plate, as an influencing factor on the performances of the GRS abutment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scaled Model Tests Investigating Deformation Characteristics of Geosynthetic Reinforced Soil (GRS) Abutments under Vertical Loads

Wang

Shen

et al. 2023

Materials

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This study conducted plane-strain scaled model tests to investigate the deformation characteristics of geosynthetic reinforced soil (GRS) abutments subjected to vertical loads. Setback distance, i.e., the distance between the back of the abutment facing and the front of the loading plate, was chosen as the investigated influencing factor since it is one of the most frequently used variables by engineers for the design of GRS abutments. This study analyzed the settlements at the top of the abutment, the lateral displacements of the abutment facing, and the volumetric deformation of the abutment under the applied vertical loads. Test results showed that increasing the setback distance could effectively reduce the deformations of the GRS abutment. There existed an optimum setback distance and further increasing the setback distance beyond this optimum value did not have a significant effect on reducing the abutment deformations. The vertical, lateral, and total volumetric deformations of the GRS abutment showed an approximately linear increase with the increase of the applied vertical loads. The lateral volumetric deformations of the GRS abutment were larger than its vertical volumetric deformations and therefore the total volumetric strains of the GRS abutment were not zero based on the test results. However, the theory of zero volume change may still be suitable for the deformation calculation of the GRS abutment since the values of the volumetric strains were minimal. The measured maximum lateral facing displacements were compared with the calculated values using the US Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) method, which assumes zero volume change of the GRS abutment under vertical loads. Comparison results indicated that the FHWA method overestimated the maximum lateral facing displacements of the GRS abutment under vertical loads. An improved method was proposed in this study to calculate the maximum lateral facing displacements under vertical loads based on the theory of zero volume change and a revised distribution of the settlements at the top of the GRS abutment. Results showed that the improved method could better predict the maximum lateral facing displacements as compared to the FHWA method.

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