Finite-Element Simulations of Full-Scale Modular-Block Reinforced Soil Retaining Walls under Earthquake Loading

摘要

A finite-element procedure was used to simulate the dynamic behavior of four full-scale reinforced soil retaining wallsnsubjected to earthquake loading. The experiments were conducted at a maximum horizontal acceleration of over 0.8 g, with two wallsnsubjected to only horizontal accelerations and two other walls under simultaneous horizontal and vertical accelerations. The analyzes werenconducted using advanced soil and geosynthetic models that were capable of simulating behavior under both monotonic and cyclicnloadings. The soil behavior was modeled using a unified general plasticity model, which was developed based on the critical state conceptnand that considered the stress level effects over a wide range of densities using a single set of parameters. The geosynthetic model wasnbased on the bounding surface concept and it considered the S-shape load-strain behavior of polymeric geogrids. In this paper, thencalibrations of the models and details of finite-element analysis are presented. The time response of horizontal and vertical accelerationsnobtained from the analyses, as well as wall deformations and tensile force in geogrids, were compared with the experimental results. Thencomparisons showed that the finite-element results rendered satisfactory agreement with the shake table test results