• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.217-229
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• 2024

Determining lateral earth pressure coefficient (EPC) K is a classic problem in geotechnical engineering. It is a key parameter for estimating the stresses in backfilled openings. For backfilled openings with rigid and immobile walls, some suggested using the Jaky's at-rest earth pressure coefficient K₀ while other suggested taking the Rankine's active earth pressure coefficient K_a. A single value was proposed for the entire backfilled opening. To better understand the distributions of stresses and K in a backfilled opening, a series of laboratory tests have been conducted. The horizontal and vertical normal stresses at the center and near the wall of the opening were measured. The values of K at the center and near the wall were then calculated with the measured horizontal and vertical normal stresses. The results show that the values of K are close to K_a at the center and close to K₀ near the wall. Furthermore, the experimental results show that the horizontal stress is almost the same at the center and near the wall, indicating a uniform distribution from the center to the wall. It can be estimated by analytical solutions using either K_a or K₀. The vertical stress is higher near the center than near the wall. Its analytical estimation can only be done by using K_a at the center and K₀ near the wall. Finally, the test results were used to calibrate a numerical model of FLAC2D, which was then used to analyze the influence of column size on the stresses and K in the backfilled opening.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.425-433
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• 2019

In this study, a simple method of calculating the passive earth pressure coefficient, which is based on the limit equilibrium method, was proposed and the calculated earth pressure coefficients were compared with those of several researchers. The angle of the linear failure surface, which is combined with the logarithmic spiral arc, to the failure surfaces of the passive zone was derived and the whole passive thrust acting on the Rankine passive zone was considered in the proposed method instead of considering the horizontal component of passive thrust. The variations of the passive earth pressure coefficients of the proposed method showed the same tendency as that of the Coulomb's passive earth pressure coefficients with an inclined angle of backfill and internal friction angle. The magnitude of passive earth pressure coefficients of the proposed method were smaller than those of the Coulomb in almost all cases. A comparison of the passive earth pressure coefficients with the wall friction angle revealed the passive earth pressure coefficients of the proposed method to be smaller than those of the Coulomb and the differences between the two values increased with increasing internal friction angle and wall friction angle. A comparison of the passive earth pressure coefficients of the proposed method with those of the existing researchers for the considered internal friction angles of $25^{\circ}$, $30^{\circ}$, $35^{\circ}$, and $40^{\circ}$ and three wall friction angles revealed the maximum percentage differences for the Kerisel and Absi method, Soubra method, Lancellotta method, $Ant\tilde{a}o$ et al. method, Kame method, and Reddy et al. method to be 4.8%, 3.8%, 31.1%, 4.0%, 20.6%, and 12.8% respectively. The passive earth pressure coefficient and existing pressures were similar in all cases.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.21-31
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• 2017

Geobag method is an eco-friendly method to minimize the impact on the environment in the construction of retaining wall structure as a kind of geosynthetic reinforced retaining walls. In this study, evaluated behavior of full scaled geobag retaining wall about four different types of geobag retaining walls, that is, non-compacted geobags wall, compacted geobag wall, combination of longitudinal and transversal laied geobags wall, gabion and geobag wall were constructed in the field with instrumentation. Based on the results of field measurement, transversal layered geobag wall for non-compacted case was displaced 30% more than that of mixed gabion wall. Also, the more than 2m geobag walls without reinforcement at the backfill area are turned out to be unstable in terms of wall displacement. On the one hand, the distribution of the earth pressure for all geobag retaining walls sites show within the range of Rankine's and Coulomb's earth pressure after construction. But after intensity rainfall, the transversal laied geobag walls significantly increment of soil pressure. The geobag walls which constructed in the way of mixed wall systems such as gabion and geobag, longitudinal and transversal laied geobags are much stable with comparison of transversal laied geobag wall.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.527-536
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• 2020

The paper represents an optimization algorithm for reinforced concrete retaining wall design. The proposed method, called Rao-3 optimization algorithm, is a recently developed algorithm. The total weight of the steel and concrete, which are used for constructing the retaining wall, were chosen as the objective function. Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete (ACI 318-05) and Rankine's theory for lateral earth pressure were considered for structural and geotechnical design, respectively. Number of the design variables are 12. Eight of those express the geometrical dimensions of the wall and four of those express the steel reinforcement of the wall. The safety against overturning, sliding and bearing capacity failure were regarded as the geotechnical constraints. The safety against bending and shear failure, minimum and maximum areas of reinforcement, development lengths of steel reinforcement were regarded as structural constraints. The performance of proposed algorithm was evaluated with two design examples.

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.51-66
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• 1986

The design of fabric reinforced retaining wall structure was discussed in this article. It was confirmed that the reinforced retaining earth wall which was designed by new theoretical formulae developed this time was stable structurally and economically. The plastic fabric filter which was placed in layers behind the facing element reduced the lateral earth pressure on the wall elements in comparison with a conventional retaining earth walls. The reinforcing characteristics of earth wall was governed by the spacing of fabric layers, effective length of fabrics, particle distribution and compaction, and thus it is essential that, in the construction field, the reinforcing strips should be selected in order to develop the maximum friction forces bet.eon soil and fabric filters. The maximum tensile stress developed from the reinforcing strips was appeared at a little far distance from the back of skin element and it was not well agreed with the Rankine's theory but distributed well as a symmetrical shape against the point of the maximum tensile stress. The total length of the different layers should be sufficient so that the tension in the fabric strip could be transferred to the backfill material. Also the total stability of reinforced earth wall should be checked with respect to a failure surface which extended blond the different lathers.