Characterization of the Influence of Geometric and Mechanical Parameters on the Behavior of Reinforced Earth Structures Through Simulation

Abstract

The initial research described in [1] resulted from the combination of a powdery soil with reinforcement layers. When combined in this way, the soil and the reinforcement develop a certain amount of tensile strength due to friction forces [2]. The objective of this work is to characterize, through numerical simulation, the influence of geometric and mechanical parameters on the behavior of reinforced earth structures. To achieve this, a mechanical behavior model was developed using Python functions to better simulate the interactions between the soil and the reinforcements. However, geotechnical input parameters were adopted, such as the angles of internal friction of the backfill sand (20° and 35°) with its bulk densities to ) as well as for the supported soil and the foundation soil and 18 kN/m³). The results showed that the longer the reinforcement bars, the greater the structure’s resistance to sliding, and that the optimal value to ensure stability and safety is L = 0.7H. However, it should be noted that as the spacing between reinforcement bars increases, the coefficient of friction and the tensile forces and also increase. Keywords: Characterization, reinforced soil, simulation, friction angle, tensile stress