EVALUATION OF THE PERFORMANCE OF A CRASH WALL DESIGN FOR PROTECTION OF MECHANICALLY STABILIZED EARTH RETAINING WALLS

摘要

Vehicular traffic may exist on either the high (fill) side of the Mechanically Stabilized Earth(MSE) retaining wall on the low side, or both sides. For traffic on the high side, a conventionaltraffic barrier might be placed on or near the top of the wall and mounted on a moment slab or abridge deck. For traffic on the low side, a conventional traffic barrier might be installed adjacentto the wall or the wall itself may serve as the traffic barrier. Typical MSE wall panels are notdesigned to resist vehicle impacts. Therefore, structural damage to the wall panels and the earthfill would require complicated and expensive repairs. A simple reinforced concrete crash wallconstructed in front of the MSE wall panels can significantly reduce damage to wall panels. Itmay prove practical to implement such a design in order to reduce costly repair to the MSE wallstructure.In this project, the research team reviewed, modeled, and analyzed a typical crash walldesign to determine its effectiveness to protect the MSE wall using Test Level 4 impactconditions of the crash testing guidelines (MASH). Three finite element models have beendeveloped: (1) a typical section of an MSE wall excluding the crash wall to observe damage ofthe panels impacted directly, (2) an MSE wall with a crash wall to quantify reduction in damageof the panels, and (3) an MSE wall with a crash wall and anchors to provide positive interactionbetween the wall panels and the crash wall. Based on these three simulations, a 0.2 m (8 in.)thick crash wall is considered adequately designed to reduce damage to the MSE wall.