Numerical Analysis of an Instrumented Steel-Reinforced Soil Wall

Abstract

The paper describes the results and lessons learned using a FEM model to simulate quantitative performance features of the Minnow Creek steel-strip reinforced soil wall structure located in the United States. The Minnow Creek Wall structure was constructed and instrumented in 1999. It is a unique case study because of the comprehensive measurements that were taken to record a wide range of wall performance features. Two different constitutive models for the soil were used (a linear-elastic Mohr-Coulomb model and hardening soil model with a Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion), and numerical outcomes were compared with physical measurements. The numerical results were shown to be sensitive to boundary conditions assumed at the toe of the wall. The generally encouraging agreement between physical and numerically predicted results gives confidence that commercial FEM software packages can be useful for the analysis and design of these types of structures, provided that care is taken in the selection of input parameters.