Behavior of Concave Segmental Soil Retaining Wall Using Porcupine Blocks
Publication: International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 21, Issue 8
Abstract
Motivated by recent studies showing concave slopes are more stable than planar slopes, this paper presents a feasible approach to build a dry-stone concave gravity segmental soil retaining wall (GSW) using special prefabricated concrete blocks (Porcupine Blocks). Unlike common segmental blocks that can only be assembled in one particular facing configuration, the Porcupine Block can be assembled with three different options, making it possible to build a concave GSW using a mixed block assembly. In this study, results from both centrifuge tests and numerical analyses indicated that a concave GSW has better performance than planar walls because concave facing contributes to reduced active earth pressure acting at the back of the GSW and the presence of porcupine offsets behind the concave wall provides additional downward forces to resist overturning. An additional highlight of this study is the use of 3D printing technique to fabricate 1:10 Porcupine Blocks for centrifuge model testing and to fabricate equipment parts for measuring the interfacial strength of the blocks.
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Acknowledgments
The authors appreciated the constructive comments from five reviewers and the editor that helped improve this paper. The authors are thankful to Dr. Liming Li and Dr. Lei Xu of Columbia University for their assistance with the centrifuge tests. The financial support on this research project provided by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan, is also appreciated (Grant MOST-108-2221-E-008-041-MY3).
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Published In
International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 21 • Issue 8 • August 2021
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Mar 11, 2020
Accepted: Feb 28, 2021
Published online: May 21, 2021
Published in print: Aug 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Oct 21, 2021
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