Eighth International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering
Numerical Simulation of Stress Distribution beneath the Foundation of a Geosynthetic Reinforced Soil Bridge Abutment Using Parametric Studies
Publication: Geo-Congress 2019: Earth Retaining Structures and Geosynthetics (GSP 306)
ABSTRACT
Geosynthetic reinforced soil integrated bridge system (GRS-IBS) technology supports prefabricated bridge superstructure elements on geosynthetic reinforced soil bridge abutments. The close spacing of the geosynthetic reinforcement within the abutment increases the confinement and stiffness of the compacted granular backfill, which results in a very strong and internally-supported system. In a similar fashion as other types of reinforced walls, a given GRS-IBS structure should be internally and externally stable under various applied loads such as surcharge, self-weight, and earthquake loads. Both bearing capacity and global settlement analyses of a given GRS-IBS necessitate calculation of the applied bearing pressure beneath the GRS-IBS. However, the actual applied bearing pressure beneath a given GRS-IBS is fairly difficult to determine using traditional design approaches, given the significant eccentricity of the applied load induced by the bridge superstructure, lateral earth pressure, as well as the flexible nature of the reinforced soil foundation (RSF, the most commonly used GRS-IBS foundational support system). The flexible nature of the foundation is a particularly challenging issue, because the deformed shape of the RSF is actually the result of a fairly complicated soil-structure interaction mechanism. Different factors that were explored that can affect the applied stress distribution beneath the foundation include the geometry of the reinforced soil zone in the abutment itself, the reinforced soil zone and RSF foundation strength parameters, the unit weight of soil in the reinforced soil zone, and the rigidity of the connection between the retained and reinforced soil zones and between the reinforced soil and facing zones. The authors will present and discuss the effect of these parameters of interest, using results from a series of finite element numerical simulations.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This material is based upon work supported by the Delaware Department of Transportation under Award Nos. 12A00269 and 11A01477.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Geo-Congress 2019: Earth Retaining Structures and Geosynthetics (GSP 306)
Pages: 109 - 118
Editors: Christopher L. Meehan, Ph.D., University of Delaware, Sanjeev Kumar, Ph.D., Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Miguel A. Pando, Ph.D., University of North Carolina Charlotte, and Joseph T. Coe, Ph.D., Temple University
ISBN (Online): 978-0-7844-8208-7
Copyright
© 2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Published online: Mar 21, 2019
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Analysis (by type)
- Bridge abutments
- Bridge components
- Bridge engineering
- Bridge foundations
- Caissons
- Engineering fundamentals
- Foundations
- Geomaterials
- Geomechanics
- Geosynthetics
- Geotechnical engineering
- Models (by type)
- Numerical analysis
- Numerical models
- Soil dynamics
- Soil mechanics
- Soil properties
- Soil stabilization
- Soil stress
- Stress (by type)
- Stress distribution
- Structural analysis
- Structural engineering
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