Reinforced Soil Wall Analysis under Working Stress Conditions Using a Two Phase Model with the Introduction of a New Design Parameter

A previously introduced two phase model was used to assess its capability in predicting the behavior of reinforced soil walls under working stress conditions. The two phase model is a homogenization method based on the virtual work theorem. The reinforced soil medium is considered as the superposition of two continuous phases, the reinforcement and matrix phases that interact within the medium. Application of the two phase model simplifies changes in the arrangement and properties of the inclusions and decreases the computation time considerably. This approach can be used to reduce the time needed for optimization in practical applications. The introduced approach was first validated by comparison with the filed measurements. Therefore, a full-scale reinforced soil wall that has been constructed and tested under working stress condition at the Public Works Research Institute in Japan was simulated using the two phase model. A finite difference code was used to implement the two phase model and simulate the model. A nonlinear elasto-plastic law and a linearly elastic, perfectly plastic constitutive law were employed for the matrix and reinforcement phases, respectively. Then an extensive parametric study including 125 reinforced soil wall models was conducted to show the capability and strength of the introduced approach for simulation of the reinforced soil walls under working stress condition. The effect of inclusion length and stiffness, inclusion spacing, and wall height on maximum lateral displacement of the models was investigated. Eventually, a new dimensionless design parameter was introduced to achieve a simple criterion for evaluating lateral displacements.