Dynamic response of Mechanically Stabilised Earth (MSE) structures: A numerical study

Abstract

With increasing construction feasibility, lower costs and proven performance throughout past major seismic events, MSE retention systems have become one of the more preferred retention systems. To study the dynamic performance of MSE walls, the 2D FE simulation using the OpenSees programme with the Manzari and Dafalias constitutive relationship has been utilised. A series of one-dimensional (1D) and 2D site response analyses subjected to sinusoidal inputs at various frequencies have been conducted to find the natural period of the soil medium. Then, using three earthquake time-histories recorded on engineering bedrock (Vs > 700 m/s), the behaviour of MSE walls with geogrid length to wall height ratios of 0.50 and 0.75 has been investigated. Multi-pulse Ricker wavelets have been deployed for a closer inspection of possible failure mechanisms of these MSE walls. Finally, the possibility of simulating an elastic orthotropic block instead of the reinforced soil with geogrids has been examined.