• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.25 no.12
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• pp.131-142
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• 2009

Geosynthetic reinforced soil walls are well recognized alternatives to conventional retaining walls due to many advantages in terms of ease of construction, economy, and aesthetics, among others. In recent years, the use of back-to-back (BTB) geosynthetic reinforced soil walls has been increasing for roadway and railway construction. However, there are insufficient studies concerning the behavior of BTB type geosynthetic reinforced soil walls. In this study a series of finite element analysis were performed for BTB walls with various wall geometry and reinforcement distribution. The results were then analyzed to relate the wall geometry and reinforcement distribution and the performance of BTB walls. Optimum reinforcement pattern was also investigated.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.41-47
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• 2008

This paper describes the results of model experiments in the laboratory, which were conducted to assess the behavior characteristics of geosynthetic reinforced soil walls according to different surcharge loads and reinforcement types. The model walls were built in the box having dimension, 100 cm tall, 140 cm long, and 100cm wide. Three types of geosynthetics, geonet, geogrid A and geogrid B, are used as the reinforcements. Decomposed granite soil (SM) was used as a backfill material. Seven model walls are constructed and tested. After the construction of the model wall, the LVDTs are installed to obtain the displacements of the wall face. As the results of the model tests, the maximum horizontal displacements of the model walls occurred due to uniform surcharge pressure were measured at the 0.7H from the bottom of the wall. The more the reinforcement strength increases, the more the wall displacements decrease, and also the reduction ratio of the wall displacement decrease with increasing the surcharge pressure.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.99-106
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• 2008

This study is concernsed with the effect of a chimney drainage system installed at the back of reinforced soil block on preventing the pore water pressure development. A series of finite-element analyses based on transient seepage analysis were performed for a number of cases with different patterns of the chimney drainage system. The results were thoroughly analyzed to get insight into the mechanism of pore water pressure reduction effect of the chimney drainage system. It is shown that a vertical drainage system installed at the back of reinforced zone can be an effective means of maintaining the wall stability during rainfall by preventing pore pressure increase in the reinforced as well as the backfill zones. Also shown is that the optimum height of the chimney drain is 50% of the wall height. Practical implications of the findings were discussed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2006.03a
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• pp.1038-1045
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• 2006

The Green Wall is highest eco-system among a segmental retaining wall systems. Recently, the demand of high segmental retaining wall (SRW) is increased in domestic. The soil nailing system is applied in order to maintain the high SRW stability for steeper slope. However, the proper design approach that can consider the earth pressure reduction effects in soil nailing system has not been proposed. This study was performed to introduce the design case by 'Two-Body Translation mechanism' to be able to consider distribution of earth pressure in the soil nailing when designing the green wall using soil nailing system. Also, this study attempts to evaluate the earth pressure change when advanced soil nailing system is constructed using $FLAC^{2D}$ ver. 3.30 program and 'Two-Body Translation mechanism'. Also in this study, various parametric studies using numerical methods as shear strength reduction (SSR) technique and limit equilibrium technique were carried out. In the parametric study, the length ratio and the bond ratio of the soil nailing were changed to identify the earth pressure reduction effect of the retaining wall reinforced by soil nailing.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.757-774
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• 2016

Soils are usually weak in tension therefore different materials such as geosynthetics are used to address this inadequacy. Worldwide annual consumption of geosynthetics is close to $1000million\;m^2$, and the value of these materials is probably close to US$1500 million. Since the total cost of the construction is at least four or five times the cost of the geosynthetic itself, the impact of these materials on civil engineering construction is very large indeed. Nevertheless, there are several significant problems associated with geosynthetics, such as creep, low modulus of elasticity, and susceptibility to aggressive environment. Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) was introduced over two decades ago in the field of structural engineering that can also be used in geotechnical engineering. CFRP has all the benefits associated with geosynthetics and it boasts higher strength, higher modulus, no significant creep and reliability in aggressive environments. In this paper, the performance of a CFRP reinforced retaining wall is investigated using the finite element method. Since the characterization of behavior of soils and interfaces are vital for reliable prediction from the numerical model, soil and interface properties are obtained from comprehensive laboratory tests. Based on the laboratory results for CFRP, backfill soil, and interface data, the finite element model is used to study the behavior of a CFRP reinforced wall. The finite element model was verified based on the results of filed measurements for a reference wall. Then the reference wall simulated by CFRP reinforcements and the results. The results of this investigations showed that the safety factor of CFRP reinforced wall is more and its deformations is less than those for a retaining wall reinforced with ordinary geosynthetics while their construction costs are in similar range.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.105-115
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• 2016

This paper describes a restoration of retaining wall, which was collapsed by rainfall. The failure causes was analyzed by field case, and then the countermeasure was suggested. The failure causes confirmed that observance of design and construction criteria was insufficient. It also was the climate condition like a rainfall and inappropriate construction management. The stability analysis for retaining wall, soil improvement and reinforced earth wall was conducted to confirm validity of the countermeasure. The analysis results showed that the suggested construction method satisfied in required safety factors. Therefore, it should be secured the stability of the structure based on the application of appropriate design method and construction management, when structure was constructed.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.31 no.2C
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• pp.75-82
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• 2011

Recently, a new reinforced retaining wall with light steel support face has been developed. In this study, full size in-situ test is carried out to investigate the stability of the new reinforced retaining wall. The lateral displacement of wall, lateral earth pressure, and settlement of the reinforced retaining wall are measured in the full size test. And numerical analysis by 3-D finite element method is also carried out to compare the test results with those of the analysis. From the full size in-situ test, the maximum lateral displacement of wall is 46mm(0.009H) and the maximum settlement is 21.5mm. And comparing these values with those of numerical analysis, it is confirmed that the new reinforced retaining wall with light steel support face is stable and applicable.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.83-93
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• 2017

This study proposed the new weighting values and fault points of condition assessment items for reinforced earth retaining walls based on the combination the inspection data and hybrid weighting technique. Utilizing the inspection data of 161 reinforced earth retaining walls, multi regression analysis and entropy technique were applied to gain the weighting values of condition assessment items. In addition, the weighting values by AHP technique was analyzed based on the opinion of experts. By appling hybrid weighting technique to the calculated weighting values obtained by the individual technique, the new weighting values of condition assessment items were proposed, and the fault points and fault indices of reinforced earth retaining walls were proposed. Results showed that the rank of the weighting value of the condition evaluation items was fluctuated according to the multiple regression analysis, AHP technique, and entropy technique. There was no duplication of the rank of the weighting value while the current weighting value was overlapped. Specially, in the rsults of multi regression analysis, two condition assessment items were occupied 70% of the total weights. When the proposed weighting values were applied to existing reinforced earth retaining wall of 161, 16 reinforced earth retaining walls showed the increased risk rank and 31 represented the decreased risk rank.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2001.03a
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• pp.419-424
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• 2001

In the KOESWall system, non-woven geotextiles are placed at the face of reinforced earth until the facing blocks are built up. And when this system is used as temporary structure, geotextiles facings are exposed to sunlight during service lifetime. During these periods, degradation of nonwoven geotextiles are occurred by UV light. So the UV-resistance of nonwoven geotextiles must be assessed correctly, in considering of the site conditions. In this study, laboratory test and the field test have been performed to evaluate the UV resistance of non-woven geotextiles used in KOESWall system and the results are expressed in terms of tensile characteristics & SEM photographs.