Abstract
Problem statement: This study presented a method to evaluate the internal stability of reinforced soil structures against tension and pullout modes of failure using pseudo-static method for earthquake conditions. Approach: Using limit equilibrium method and assuming the failure surface to be logarithmic spiral, analysis was conducted to maintain internal stability against both tensile and pullout failure of the reinforcements. For the seismic conditions, factors of safety of all the geosynthetic layers in relation to tension and pullout failure modes were determined for different magnitudes of friction angle of backfill, horizontal seismic accelerations and surcharge load acting on the wall. Results: The efforts had been made to obtain the number of layers, pullout length and total length of the reinforcement at each layer level for the desired safety level against tension and pullout modes of failure. The influence of friction angle of the backfill, horizontal earthquake acceleration and surcharge load on number of layers, pullout length and total length of the reinforcement needed for the stability at each level was discussed. Conclusion/Recommendations: The developed method provided a closed form solution for the active earth pressure acting on the reinforced soil structures using rotational log-spiral failure mechanism under earthquake loading ensuring safety against tension and pullout modes of failure.
Highlights
Stability analysis of reinforced earth walls under earthquake loading is one of the most important topics in geotechnical engineering and has drawn the attention of researchers
For a constant value of kh = 0.2, factor of safety (FSt) decreases significantly from 20-1.2 when depth increases from the topmost to bottommost layer
This important observation helps in judicious selection of the number of reinforcement layers as the increase in horizontal seismic accelerations adversely affects the wall stability
Summary
Stability analysis of reinforced earth walls under earthquake loading is one of the most important topics in geotechnical engineering and has drawn the attention of researchers. In contrast to the conventional retaining structures, Reinforced Soil Structures (RSS) are well known for their improved performance during earthquakes. Design procedures are being evolved for such structures considering their stability under earthquake loading and still there exists scope for further development of a simple but improved method to analyze and design such mechanically stabilized walls with inclusions under seismic condition. An overview of the performance of RSS during earthquakes, review of the currently developed analyses and the objective and scope of the present study are presented. Choudhury and Ahmad[3,4,5] presented a seismic stability analysis of waterfront reinforced soil retaining structures using pseudo-static approach. Pseudo-static method is adopted for the stability analysis of RSS
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