The interaction mechanism and behavior of hexagonal wire mesh reinforced embankment with silty sand backfill on soft clay

Han

Geosynthetics International

et al. 2016

This paper presents a numerical parametric study on behavior of bearing reinforcement earth (BRE) walls with different backfill properties using the finite-element method software PLAXIS 2D. The primary objective of this study was to improve the understanding of bearing stress, settlement, lateral earth pressure, and horizontal wall movement of BRE walls with different backfill materials. The second objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of various soil-structure interactions, foundations, and stiffness of reinforcements on horizontal wall deformations. The backfill materials consisted of four types of soil, which were mixtures of silty clay and sand at different fine contents of 2, 20, 40, and 80% by dry weight. The model parameters for the numerical simulation were obtained from the conventional laboratory tests and back-calculated from the laboratory pullout tests of the bearing reinforcement. The geotextile elements were used to model the bearing reinforcements by converting the contribution of friction and bearing resistances to the equivalent friction resistance, which was represented by the soil-bearing reinforcement interaction ratio, R inter . The values of R inter decreased following a polynomial function as an increase of fine content in the ranges of 0.65-0.38 and 0.75-0.40 for the numbers of transverse members, n = 2 and 3, respectively. The simulated bearing stress in the reinforced zone decreased from the front to the back of the wall because the BRE wall behaved as a rigid body built on the relatively firm foundation retaining the unreinforced backfill. The foundation settlement decreased from the facing of the wall to the unreinforced zone for all backfill properties due to the slight rotation of the wall. The relationship between the maximum horizontal wall movement and the fine content can be expressed by a polynomial function. The maximum horizontal wall movement significantly increased as the fine content increased. The excessive movement was realized when the fine content was greater than 45%. The increase of the fine content moved the location of the maximum wall movement higher up from the mid to the top of the wall. A numerical parametric study was conducted to investigate the soil-structure interaction, foundation, and stiffness of reinforcement. These parameters affected the horizontal wall deformation, which is especially important for serviceability of BRE walls. The knowledge gained from this study provides a preliminary guideline in predicting the behavior of BRE walls and may be used to investigate other BRE walls with different wall heights and features of bearing reinforcements.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Section: Soil-reinforcement Interactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Numerical parametric study on behavior of bearing reinforcement earth walls with different backfill material properties

Han

Geosynthetics International

et al. 2016

“…e lling and steel mesh properties were taken from [4]. e friction coe cients between the gabion and the subsoil, and between the gabions were calculated according to equation (3). e joints between the gabions were modelled using the di erent approaches described above.…”

Section: Numerical Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to [3], the friction coe cient between gabion and soil can be estimated from the following equation: (1) where: α d tanφ -friction coe cient between gabion and soil; δ -friction angle between steel and soil; a s -ratio of steel area to total gabion-subsoil joint area; φ -friction angle of the subsoil.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical modelling of gabion joints

Grodecki

2017

Abstractis paper presents results of a numerical analysis of the stability of a gabion retaining wall. e main objective of the paper is to identify how di erent methods of the modelling of gabion joints a ect the stability of the structure.Keywords: gabion, retaining wall, FEM, stability Streszczenie Praca przedstawia rezultaty analiz numerycznych stateczności muru oporowego z gabionów. Głównym celem jest ocena wpływu sposobu modelowania połączeń gabionów na stateczność muru. [-]

Num Anal Meth Geomechanics

Numerical simulation of the effect of interface friction of a bounding structure on shear deformation in a granular soil

Ebrahimian

Bauer

2011

SUMMARYRecently, the shear behavior of a cohesionless granular strip that is in contact with a very rough surface of a moving bounding structure has been numerically investigated by several authors by using a micropolar hypoplastic continuum model. It was shown that the micropolar boundary conditions assumed along the interface have a strong influence on the deformations within the granular layer. In previous investigations, only interface friction angles for very rough bounding structures were assumed. In contrast, the focus of the present paper is on the influence of the interface roughness on the deformation behavior of the granular strip when the interface friction angle is lower than the peak friction angle of the granular material. In addition to the interface friction angle, particular attention is also paid to the influence of the mean grain diameter, the solid hardness, the initial void ratio, and the vertical stress on the maximum horizontal shear displacement within the granular layer before sliding is started.