Modeling of Laterally Loaded Drilled Shafts Behind Mechanically Stabilized Earth Block Walls

Download or read book Modeling of Laterally Loaded Drilled Shafts Behind Mechanically Stabilized Earth Block Walls written by Matthew Pierson and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) walls are recognized as a cost effective earth retention technology. In some cases structural foundations must pass through the reinforced fill due to the required footprint of the reinforced zone behind the facing. Limited information about the interaction between the structure and the MSE mass has been published, making efficient design difficult. It would be prohibitively expensive to construct and test all possible geometries or applications; therefore numerical modeling must be used to supplement physical data. This report contains a discussion of the analysis of physical test data and numerical modeling of an MSE test wall containing foundation elements. The test wall consists of an MSE wall with cast-in-place shafts contained within and solely supported by the reinforced fill. The finite difference numerical modeling program FLAC3D was used for analysis. A parametric study was conducted to determine how the various constituents of the physical wall as well as wall height affect wall-shaft behavior. Geogrid properties, particularly stiffness, were found to have the greatest influence on behavior. Wall height has a large influence on capacity at shaft movement of more than 2 inches. Analyses of the modeling results were used to create design recommendations for MSE walls with foundation elements.