Numerical parametric study of geosynthetic reinforced soil integrated bridge system (GRS-IBS)

Abstract

A 2-D finite flement model was developed in this study to conduct a FE parametric study on the effects of some variables in the performance of geosynthetic reinforced soil integrated bridge system (GRS-IBS). The variables investigated in this study include the effect of internal friction angle of backfill material, width of reinforced soil foundation (RSF), secondary reinforcement within bearing bed, setback distance, bearing width and length of reinforcement. Other important parameters such as reinforcement stiffness and spacing were previously investgated by the authors. The performance of GRS-IBS were investgated in terms of lateral facing displacement, strain distribution along reinforcement, and location of potential failure zone. The results showed that the internal friction angle of backfill material has a significant impact on the performance of GRS-IBS. The secondary reinforcement, setback distance, and bearing width have low impact on the performance of GRS-IBS. However, it was found that the width of RSF and length of reinforcement have negligible effect on the performance of GRS-IBS. Finally, the potential failure envelope of the GRS-IBS abutment was found to be a combination of punching shear failure envelope (top) that starts under the inner edge of strip footing and extends vertically downward to intersect with Rankine active failure envelope (bottom).