• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.81-93
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• 2024

In Korea, numerous large-scale infrastructure construction projects and housing site developments are being undertaken. However, due to limited land availability, sourcing high-quality backfill materials that meet the standards for railroad and road embankment compaction and mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) retaining wall construction poses significant challenges. Concurrently, there has been an increase in structural failures of many MSE retaining walls, attributed primarily to reduced bearing capacity and impaired drainage performance, resulting from inadequate backfill compaction. This study aimed to analyze the structural performance and safety of an MSE retaining wall using recycled soil as backfill. We conducted small-scale model tests utilizing 3D printing technology combined with two-dimensional numerical analysis. The study quantitatively evaluated the MSE retaining wall's performance concerning the recycled soil mixing ratio and reinforcement installation methods. Furthermore, the utility of 3D printing was confirmed through the production of an experimental wall designed to facilitate easy reinforcement attachment, mirroring the conditions of actual MSE retaining wall construction.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.257-265
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• 2012

Since the collapse of MSE walls frequently occurs due to the rainfall, it is necessary to analyze the behavior of MSE wall depending on the characteristics of rainfall and the properties of permeability of backfill. In order to understand the behavior of MSE wall depending on the characteristics of rainfall and the properties of permeability of backfill, finite element analyses were performed on the typical MSE wall. With varying ratio of saturated permeability to rainfall intensity, porepressures, displacements and factor of safety were analyzed. As the ratio of the saturated permeability to rainfall intensity increases, the global factor of safety is found to increase. Based on the analyses, the use of permeability of backfill with $2.56{\times}10^{-5}m/sec$ is desirable considering the characteristics of rainfall in Korea.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.54-63
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• 2018

In this study, the stability and economic feasibility of a MSE (Mechanically stability earth) wall with a pre-cast concrete pacing panel was investigated for a standard section of highway. Based on the design criteria, the MSE walls of the panel type were designed considering the load conditions of the highway, such as the dead load of the concrete pavement, traffic load, and impact load of the barrier. The length of the ribbed metal strip was arranged at 0.9H according to the height of the MSE walls. Because the length of the reinforcement was set to 0.9H according to the height of the MSE wall, the external stability governed by the shape of the reinforced soil was not affected by the height increase. The factor of safety (FOS) for the bearing capacity was decreased drastically due to the increase in self-weight according to the height of the MSE wall. As a result of examining the internal stability according to the cohesive gravity method, the FOS of pullout was increased and the FOS of fracture was decreased. As the height of the MSEW wall increases, the horizontal earth pressure acting as an active force and the vertical earth pressure acting as a resistance force are increased together, so that the FOS of the pullout is increased. Because the long-term allowable tensile force of the ribbed metal strip is constant, the FOS of the fracture is decreased by only an increase in the horizontal earth pressure according to the height. The panel type MSE wall was more economical than the block type at all heights. Compared to the concrete retaining wall, it has excellent economic efficiency at a height of 5.0 m or more.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.23-36
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• 2019

In this paper, field measurement of the Block Type Mechanically Stabilized Earth (MSE) wall curved section was performed, and the reinforced area of the curved part is studied through the result. MSE method has been applied to various fields because of easy construction and excellent economic efficiency, so that it can be easily access in our life. However due to lack of compaction and stress concentration phenomenon, cracks and collapse occur in the curve of MSE wall, which is important for safety. The cause of collapse is lack of research on curved section, lack of design criteria, lack of construction due to economical efficiency and shortening of construction period, insufficient compaction space. In this study, therefore, it was examined the existing design and construction standards, analyzed the cause through accident examples of the curved section of the Block Type MSE wall. As a result, the horizontal displacement of the curved section was 90% higher than that of the straight section and 60% higher than that of the concave section. In the case of the convex section in the curved section reinforcement region, the maximum displacement is shown in the H/2 section in the horizontal direction from the center of the MSE wall, and the range of influence from H is shown. In the case of the concave section, the maximum displacement is shown in the center, The minimum displacement was confirmed in H/4 section in the horizontal direction from the center of the MSE wall. As a basic study on the reinforcement area rehabilitation through the actual construction of block type MSE wall, the behaviors of the straight part and the curved part were compared and analyzed. And analyzed the reinforced area in order to reduce the damage of the stress concentration phenomenon and secure the safety.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.329-341
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• 2024

Retaining structures are one of the most important elements in the stabilization of excavations and slopes in various engineering projects. Mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) walls are widely used as retaining structures due to their flexibility, easy and economical construction. These benefits are especially prominent for projects built on soft and weak foundation soils, which have relatively low resistance and high compressibility. For high retaining walls on weak foundations, conventional design methods are not cost-effective. Therefore, two alternative solutions for different foundation weakness are proposed in this research: optimized multi-tiered MSE walls and single tier wall with foundation improvement. The cost optimization considers both the construction components and the land price. The results show that the optimal solution depends on several factors, including the foundation strength and more importantly, the land price. For low land price, the optimized multi-tiered wall is more economical, while for high land price (urban areas), the foundation improvement is preferable. As the foundation strength decreases, the foundation improvement becomes inevitable.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.83-92
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• 2017

This paper deals with numerical analysis of behavior of curved mechanically stabilized earth(MSE) walls with geosynthetics reinforcement. Unlike typical concrete retaining walls, MSE wall enables securing stability of higher walls without being constrained by backfill height and is currently and widely used to create spaces for industrial and residential complexes. The design of MSE walls is carried out by checking external stability, similarly to the external checks of conventional retaining wall. In addition, internal stability check is mandatory. Typical stability check based on numerical analysis is done assuming 2-dimensional condition (plane strain condition). However, according to the former studies of 3-dimensional MSE wall, the most weakest part of a curved geosynthetic MSE wall is reported as the convex location, which is also identified from the studies of the laboratory model tests and field monitoring. In order to understand the behaviour of the convex location of the MSE wall, 2-dimensional analysis clearly reveals its limitation. Furthermore, laboratory model tests and field monitoring also have restriction in recognizing their behaviour and failure mechanism. In this study, 3-dimensional numerical analysis was performed to figure out the behaviour of the curved part of the geosynthetic reinforced wall, and the results of the straight-line and curved part in the numerical analysis were compared and analysed. In addition, the behaviour characteristics at each condition were compared by considering the overburden load and relative density of backfill.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 1999.10a
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• pp.473-480
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• 1999

This paper presents the results of a parametric study on the behavior of mechanically stabilized earth retaining wall. It has been recognized that the currently available design guidelines, which is base on the limit equilibrium approach, cannot properly account the interaction effect between the components, construction sequence, and foundation settlement which may impose a significant influence on the wall behavior. A parametric study using finite element analysis was performed to investigate the behavior of MSE wall under different construction conditions and the applicability of the current design approach. In the parametric analysis, the effects of the construction sequence, the surcharge, and the foundation stiffness were studied and a detailed finite element modeling for various components of the system were employed. The results, such as wall displacement and earth pressure distributions, reinforcement forces, vertical stress distribution were then thoroughly analyzed to investigate the effect of construction details on the wall behavior.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.117-127
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• 2015

Recently, there has been a string of negligent accidents for the retaining wall and slope. In order to measure the ground deformation for the MSE wall, the authors carried out the model test to assess behavioral characteristics of geogrid MSE walls in active failure state with different conditions of geogrid reinforcement. The models are built in the soil container box having dimension, 100 cm long, 90 cm height, and 10 cm wide. The reinforcement used in the model test is geogrid (polyvinyl chloride, PVC). Three geogrids are sized by $30cm{\times}60cm$, $30cm{\times}70cm$, $30cm{\times}80cm$ (width ${\times}$ length) respectively. In this study, the laboratory model tests represented for several conditions of the MSE wall, and then its results were compared to 2D FE analysis.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.193-204
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• 2009

A 10.4-m high highway embankment retained behind mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) walls is under construction in the northeastern part of the Indian state of Bihar. The structure is constructed with compacted, micaceous, grey, silty sand, reinforced with polyester (PET) geogrids, and faced with reinforced cement concrete fascia panels. The connections between the fascia panels and the geogrids failed on several occasions during the monsoon seasons of 2007 and 2008 following episodes of heavy rainfall, when the embankment was still under construction. However, during these incidents the MSE embankment itself remained by and large stable and the collateral damages were minimal. The observational data during these incidents presented an opportunity to develop and calibrate a simple procedure for estimating rainfall induced pore water pressure development within MSE embankments constructed with backfill materials that do not allow unimpeded seepage. A simple analytical finite element model was developed for the purpose. The modeling results were found to agree with the observational and meteorological records from the site. These results also indicated that the threshold rainwater infiltration flux needed for the development of pore water pressure within an MSE embankment is a monotonically increasing function of the hydraulic conductivity of backfill. Specifically for the MSE embankment upon which this study is based, the analytical results indicated that the instabilities could have been avoided by having in place a chimney drain immediately behind the fascia panels.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.59-65
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• 2007

Excess pore pressures in low permeability soils may not dissipate quickly enough and decrease the effective stresses inside the soil, which in turn may cause a reduction of the shear strength at the interface between the soil and the reinforcement in MSE walls. For this condition the dissipation rate of pore pressures is most important and it varies depending on wall size, permeability of the backfill, and reinforcement length. In this paper, a series of numerical analysis has been performed to investigate the effect of those factors. The results show that for soils with a permeability lower than $10^{-3}cm/sec$, the consolidation time gradually increases. The increase in consolidation time indicates the decrease in effective stress thus it will result in decrease in pullout capacity of the reinforcement as verified by the numerical analyses. It is also observed that larger consolidation time is required for longer reinforcement length (longer drainage path).