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ON THE NUMERICAL MODELING OF BURIED STRUCTURES WITH COMPRESSIBLE INCLUSION
Session: Transportation and Linear Infrastructure I / Transports et infrastructures linéaires I
Mohamed Meguid, McGill University (Canada)
Mahmoud Hussein, McGill University (Canada)
Jim Whalen, Plasti-Fab Ltd. (Canada)
Expanded polystyrene (EPS) geofoam has been successfully used as a lightweight fill material in geotechnical engineering applications due to its low density and high compressive strength. In this study a 2D nonlinear finite element analysis is conducted to investigate the role of embedding a layer of geofoam within the backfill soil around a buried rigid box on the earth loads reaching the box walls. The earth pressure distribution acting on the box is investigated for varying several parameters including geofoam density, thickness, width and location. The numerical model is first validated by comparing the calculated pressures with experimental data and then used to understand some soil-structure interaction aspects of the problem. Conclusions are made regarding the effectiveness of placing the EPS inclusion on the earth pressure distribution around the structure as well as the resulting soil movement near the soil surface.
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