Reinforced Soil-Metal Structures

TLDR: Ad adopting this new design concept provides greater stability to the metal structure; improves the stiffness of the soil; activates the entire reinforced-soil medium to assist in the transmission of the load; enhances the arching effect; and makes it possible to observe very large deformations in theMetal structure before its collapse and thus avoid catastrophic failure.

Abstract: Many of the existing soil-metal structures have shown signs of serious distress, including local failures. A major cause of these distress conditions is believed to be due to poor compaction of the soil backfill. To correct this shortcoming, research work was underaken to examine the following design concept: (1) The metal structure is tied back into the surrounding granular soil; and (2) the soil cover above the metal structure is reinforced. Experimental results, obained from tests on five models, were compared to analytical results based on the finite-element method. The results show that adopting this new design concept: (1) Provides greater stability to the metal structure; (2) improves the stiffness of the soil; (3) activates the entire reinforced-soil medium to assist in the transmission of the load; (4) enhances the arching effect; and (5) makes it possible to observe very large deformations in the metal structure before its collapse and thus avoid catastrophic failure. A simplified design method and an illustrated design example are presented.