Interaction analysis of back-to-back mechanically stabilized earth walls

Back-to-back mechanically stabilized earth walls （BBMSEWs） are encountered in bridge approaches, ramp ways, rockfall protection systems, earth dams, levees and noise barriers. However, available design guidelines for BBMSEWs are limited and not applicable to numerical modeling when back-to-back walls interact with each other. The objective of this paper is to investigate, using PLAXIS code, the effects of the reduction in the distance between BBMSEW, the reinforcement length, the quality of backfill material and the connection of reinforcements in the middle, when the back-to-back walls are close. The results indicate that each of the BBMSEWs behaves independently if the width of the embankment between mechanically stabilized earth walls is greater than that of the active zone. This is in good agreement with the result of FHWA design guideline. However, the results show that the FHWA design guideline underestimates the lateral earth pressure when back-to-back walls interact with each other. Moreover, for closer BBMSEWs, FHWA design guideline strongly overestimates the maximum tensile force in the reinforcement. The investigation of the quality of backfill material shows that the minor increase in embankment cohesion can lead to significant reductions in both the lateral earth pressure and the maximum tensile force in geosynthetic. When the distance between the two earth walls is close to zero, the connection of reinforcement between back-to-back walls significantly improves the factor of safety.

Advanced Unified Failure Model on Uniformly Reinforced Concrete Box Section Members

Based on the traditional Nielsen model,a unified failure model on the uniformly reinforced concrete box section members under combined forces was introduced by Luo and Liu.One of their contributions is adjustment of the shear carrying capacity of concrete at the member failure surface.In the unified failure model,the comparison with the experimental results verified this adjustment.Nevertheless,it should be pointed out that the adjustment factor of shear carrying capacity at member failure surface for the reinforced concrete members in the unified failure model is a fixed adjustment constant for all experiment data,which is basically determined by curve fitting.However,the adjustment factor should vary with the normal stress at the member failure surface.In this paper,an advanced theoretical model is introduced,in which the adjustment factor of shear carrying capacity at failure surface is a variable related to the normal stress at failure surface.Furthermore,the advanced unified failure model on the uniformly reinforced concrete box section member can still be expressed in a simple form.Finally,the comparison with several groups of test data has verified that this advanced model is more accurate and feasible to be used in design.