Design of a Mechanically Stabilized Earth Wall with Geotextile Reinforcement in Accordance with the Federal Highway Administration Standard

摘要

Geotextile is a geosynthetic constructed for embankment functioning as reinforcement to support tension force from the loading design and decrease the failure potential of embankments. In accordance with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) standard, geotextiles are designed under static and dynamic loading on a 7.5 m-high earth wall at Pondok Hijau, Bandung. The reinforced earth wall is known as a mechanically stabilized earth wall. The FHWA design calculation uses the simplified coherent gravity method, while the final analysis is based on the limit equilibrium and finite element methods. The FHWA calculation produces a preliminary design of a 6.5 m-long geotextile with 200 kN/m ultimate tensile strength placed at every 30 cm at the first layer, 50 cm from the second to the seventh layer, and 30 cm from the eighth to the twenty-first layer. The maximum horizontal deformations of the geotextile because of static and dynamic loading are 2.94 and 4.6 cm, respectively. The wall itself also deforms by as much as 5.07 and 7.93 cm owing to static loading and dynamic loading, respectively. The allowable deformation of the geotextile and the wall are 27.3 and 10 cm, respectively. Hence, the preliminary design is valid according to the deformation requirements.