SEISMIC STABILITY ANALYSIS OF REINFORCED-SOIL WALLS

Abstract

In recent years, reinforced soil is one among the few subjects that raised the imagination and general interest of the Civil Engineering. Need to improve the internal stability design of geosynthetic reinforced soil structures is discussed. Applications of reinforced earth walls is discussed in a brief. Background for design procedures and design considerations are have been reviewed. Review of literature on reinforced soil walls is studied and gaps in literature are identified. Performance of reinforced soil walls during major earthquakes has been observed and Case histories are given which present a representative survey of observed performance. From the observed field performances, it is concluded that reinforced soil walls perform well when compared to conventional retaining walls and rigid facing panel system provide additional stability. Horizontal Method of Slices is used to determine the required geosynthetic tensile force. Pseudo-static method is used to determine the seismic forces. A parametric study is conducted to determine the effect of various parameters like soil friction angle, surcharge loading, cohesion of backfill, wall inclination, horizontal and vertical seismic coefficients on required geosynthetic tensile force. The cardinal from this study are required geosynthetic force increases with increase in surcharge loading, and horizontal and vertical seismic coefficient where as it decreases with increase in soil friction angle, wall inclination with vertical and cohesive strength of backfill. The effect of vertical seismic acceleration is less on required gosynthetic force when compared with horizontal seismic coefficient.