• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.495-501
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• 2018

Geogrid application that has proved to be an effective and economic method of reinforcing particles, is widely used in geotechnical engineering. The discrete element method (DEM) has been used to investigate the micro mechanics of the geogrid deformation and also the interlocking mechanism that cannot be easily studies in laboratory tests. Two types of realistically shaped geogrid models with square and triangle apertures were developed using parallel bonds in PFC3D. The calibration test simulations have demonstrated that the precisely shaped triangular geogrid model is also able to reproduce the deformation and strength characteristics of geogrids. Moreover, the square and triangular geogrid models were also used in DEM pull-out test simulations with idealized shape particle models for validation. The simulation results have been shown to provide good predictions of pullout force as a function of displacement especially for the initial 30 mm displacement. For the granular material of size 40 mm, both the experimental and DEM results demonstrate that the triangular geogrid of size 75 mm outperforms the square geogrid of size 65 mm. Besides, the simulations have given valuable insight into the interaction between particle and geogrid and also revealed similar deformation behavior of geogrids during pullout. Therefore, the DEM provides a tool which enable to model other possible prototype geogrid and investigate their performance before manufacture.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.353-367
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• 2023

The construction of a protective embankment is a suitable strategy to stop and control high-energy rock blocks' impacts during the rockfall phenomenon. In this paper, based on the discrete element numerical method, by modeling an existing embankment reinforced with geogrid, its stability status under the impact of a rock block with two types of low and high kinetic energy, namely 2402 and 4180 kJ, respectively, has been investigated. The modeling results show that the use of geogrid has caused the displacement in the front and back of the embankment to decrease by more than 30%. In this case, the reinforced embankment has stopped the rock block earlier. The displacements obtained from the DEM modeling are compared with the displacements measured from an actual practical experiment to evaluate the results' validity. Comparison between the results shows that the displacement values are close together, while the maximum percentage error in previous studies by an analytical method and the finite element method was 76.4% and 36.6%, respectively. Therefore, the obtained results indicate the discrete numerical method's high ability compared to other numerical and analytical methods to simulate and design the geogrid-reinforced soil embankment under natural disasters such as rockfall with a minor error.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.143-149
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• 2016

This study evaluated the shear behavior of geogrid reinforced ballast material using a large scale direct shear test and discrete element method (DEM) based on PFC 3D program. The direct shear test was conducted on ballast materials that have different particle size distributions. Whereas the test results revealed that the shear strength generally increased with the larger particle size of ballast material without geogrid reinforcement, the shear behavior of ballast material was found to change pertaining to the relationship between particle size distribution and geogrid rib size. Generally, it is deemed the effectiveness of reinforcement can be achieved when the rib size is two times greater than average particle size. A numerical analysis based on DEM was conducted to verify the test results. The geogrid modeling was successfully completed by calibration process along with sensitivity analysis to have actual tensile strength provided by manufacturer. With a given geogrid model, the parametric evaluation was further carried out to examine the interactive behavior between geogrid and ballast material. Consequently, it was found that the effectiveness zone of geogrid reinforcement generated within a specific depth.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.55-66
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• 2011

This paper presents the results of an investigation on the failure mechanism of geosynthetic reinforced soil walls in back-to-back configuration using 1-g reduced-scale model tests as well as discrete element method-based numerical investigation. In the 1-g reduced scale model tests, 1/10 scale back-to-back walls were constructed so that the wall can be brought to failure by its own weight and the effect of reinforcement length on the failure mechanism was investigated. In addition, a validated discrete element method-based numerical model was used to further investigate the failure mechanism of back-to-back walls with different boundary conditions. The results were then compared with the failure mechanisms defined in the FHWA design guideline.