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INFLUENCE OF CHOICE OF SMALL- AND LARGE-STRAIN MODE IN FLAC ON SOIL-GEOSYNTHETIC INTERACTION PROBLEMS
Session: General Geotechnique and Engineering Geology / Géotechnique générale et géologie de l'ingénieur
Richard Bathurst, Royal Military College of Canada (Canada)
Yan Yu, Royal Military College of Canada (Canada)
Lin Bo-Hung, National Chi Nan University (Taïwan)
Soil-geosynthetic interaction plays a major role in the performance of mechanically stabilized earth structures such as reinforced soil walls, steep slopes and embankments. Program FLAC is now used routinely by engineers for the design and analysis of these structures. Accurate numerical modelling requires the use of appropriate constitutive models which has been the subject of much research. However, numerical outcomes may also be sensitive to geometric nonlinearity which is detectable when numerical simulations are carried out in both small- and large-strain modes in program FLAC. The paper examines two examples of soil-geosynthetic interaction problems using FLAC. The cases are: 1) horizontal pullout of a geosynthetic layer in a pullout box; and 2) a reinforced soil layer over a void. FLAC simulations are carried out both in small-strain mode (i.e., without numerical grid updating) and in large-strain mode (i.e., with numerical grid updating). N Examples of numerical results are demonstrated by comparing numerical outcomes using both approaches with physical test results available in the literature. This paper will assist engineers to identify those conditions where numerical simulations of geosynthetic-reinforced soil structures should be carried out in large-strain mode in order to avoid unreasonable numerical outcomes.
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