Numerical Analysis and Design on Geocell Retaining Structures
Date Issued
2011
Date
2011
Author(s)
Wu, Chang-Ping
Abstract
Soil reinforced with geocells has the advantage of reducing the settlement and increasing the bearing capacity of the soil. Nowadays, geocells has been extensively employed in erosion control, pavements, as well as retaining walls.
The purpose of this study was to establish a numerical model for analyzing the mechanical behavior of geocell-reinforced retaining structures. In the study, the analytical results were compared with the results from model tests for verification the correctness of the numerical model. In addition, comparison with the result of a case study of segmental wall was also made. Finally, various layouts of retaining structures were analyzed, and suggestion was made based on the performance of the structures.
The verification of the numerical model shows good results in the aspects of predicting potential slip plane by plastic zones and estimating the load to cause failure. In general, the analysis obtains following results: the wall with steeper inclination has more horizontal displacement of wall face and more settlement at the top of the wall; the facing-type wall displays more horizontal displacement than the gravity-type; the reinforcement in the backfill effectively reduce plastic zones, the horizontal displacement of wall face, and the settlement of backfill.
The study on layouts of reinforced wall shows that steeper walls will induce higher shear stress at the bottom of the walls than gentler walls. In general, the wall with certain layer of lengthened geocells, serving as reinforcement, performs best in terms of reducing wall face’s deformation or minimizing potential slip zones. Moreover, Rankine’s active earth pressure may be adopted when conducting limit equilibrium analysis on geocell-reinforced walls.
Subjects
geocells
reinforced retaining structure
numerical analysis
horizontal displacement
settlement
Type
thesis
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