Simulating the Behavior of GRS Bridge Abutments

Helwany, Sam; Wu, Jonathan T. H.; Kitsabunnarat, Akadet

doi:10.1061/(asce)1090-0241(2007)133:10(1229)

Cited by 57 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Similarly, Tatsuoka et al [2] found that deformations of a footing on reinforced soil structures could be greatly reduced with preloading and subsequent tensioning of reinforcements. Helwany et al [3] performed a finite element analysis of MSE wall abutments and evaluated the deformational behavior of the wall under various surcharges, while evaluating effects of varying reinforcement spacing, stiffness, and backfill soil. Yoo et al [4] observed the behavior of two-tiered MSE wall under surcharge loading and modeled its performance using three-dimensional analysis.…”

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confidence: 99%

Limit Analysis Optimization of Design Factors for Mechanically Stabilized Earth Wall-Supported Footings

Leshchinsky

2014

Transp. Infrastruct. Geotech.

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Increasingly in the past few decades, mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) walls have been a common choice for earth retention solutions due to their ease of construction, cost-effective design, and flexibility. However, limit state capacity of footings atop a MSE structure, such as a bridge abutment, is a complex and nonintuitive stability problem dependent on factors like reinforcement layout and strength, location of footing, and failure mechanism. In order to evaluate the effects of these factors, a parametric study was performed utilizing a robust tool in the framework of limit analysis of plasticity. It demonstrates the effect of the parameters on bearing capacity and optimized reinforcement efficiency, all in context of an existing MSE wall-supported bridge abutment. It is shown that closely spaced reinforcement layouts allow for more efficient reinforcement behavior and improved bearing capacity nearer to the wall facing, while inverse, detrimental trends were observed for wider reinforcement spacing. The implications of this analysis illustrate that an optimized approach involving footing location, reinforcement strength, and reinforcement spacing allow for reduced bridge deck length requirements. This clearly has economic consequences. The optimization of these design factors is especially applicable to MSE wall-supported bridge abutments since the location of the footing affects expensive elements such as length of girders. Fundamentally, this work adds to the limited existing knowledge of bearing capacity of footings on top of MSE walls. Keywords Bridge abutment. MSE walls. Spread footings Background Mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) walls are an increasingly common means of earth retention for a variety of applications. Their function is simple and efficient-use

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confidence: 99%

Limit Analysis Optimization of Design Factors for Mechanically Stabilized Earth Wall-Supported Footings

Leshchinsky

2014

Transp. Infrastruct. Geotech.

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“…Numerical studies also have been conducted for GRS bridge piers and abutments, and generally indicate relatively small facing displacements and bridge seat settlements (e.g., Helwany et al 2003Helwany et al , 2007Ambauen et al 2015;Leshchinsky and Xie 2015;Fox 2016, 2017;Ardah et al 2017;Rong et al 2017;Abu-Farsakh et al 2018;Zheng et al 2018aShen et al 2019). Parametric studies indicate that the relative compaction of backfill soil, reinforcement vertical spacing, reinforcement tensile stiffness, and bridge load have the most significant effects on the performance of GRS bridge abutments under static loading (Helwany et al 2007;Fox 2016, 2017). Helwany et al (2003) found that facing displacements, bridge seat settlements, and differential settlements between the bridge and approach roadway were acceptable for sand and medium-to-stiff clay foundation soils.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Physical Model Tests of Half-Scale Geosynthetic Reinforced Soil Bridge Abutments. I: Static Loading

Zheng

McCartney

Shing

et al. 2019

J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng.

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This paper presents experimental results from physical model tests on four half-scale geosynthetic reinforced soil (GRS) bridge abutment specimens constructed using wellgraded angular backfill sand, modular facing blocks, and uniaxial geogrid reinforcement to investigate the effects of applied surcharge stress, reinforcement vertical spacing, and reinforcement tensile stiffness for working stress, static loading conditions. Facing displacements increased for the upper section of the walls after the application of surcharge stress and were greater for larger reinforcement vertical spacing and reduced reinforcement tensile stiffness. Bridge seat settlements were proportional to the applied surcharge stress, strongly affected by larger reinforcement vertical spacing, and only slightly affected by reduced reinforcement tensile stiffness. Measured vertical and lateral soil stresses generally were lower than calculated values for static loading conditions. The maximum tensile strain in each reinforcement layer occurred near the facing block connection for lower layers and under the bridge seat for higher layers. A companion paper presents experimental results for the same GRS bridge abutment specimens under dynamic loading conditions.

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“…The lateral facing displacements and maximum tensile forces in reinforcement layers at the end of construction are much larger for GRS walls constructed using a heavy compactor than a light compactor. Numerical studies have been conducted for GRS abutments under static loading (Wu et al 2006;Helwany et al 2007;Zheng et al 2014Zheng et al , 2015, and results from these studies show relatively small lateral facing displacements and bridge footing settlements under service loads. However, the effect of backfill compaction was not considered in these numerical investigations for the static response of GRS abutments.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical Study of the Compaction Effect on the Static Behavior of a Geosynthetic Reinforced Soil-Integrated Bridge System

Zheng

Fox²,

McCartney

2017

Geotechnical Frontiers 2017

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This paper presents a numerical study on the effect of backfill compaction on the static response of geosynthetic reinforced soil-integrated bridge system (GRS-IBS). The numerical simulations were performed in stages to simulate the construction process, and considered soil-geotextile, soil-block, geotextile-block, and abutment-bridge interactions. Backfill compaction was simulated using a temporarily-applied uniform vertical stress to each lift during construction. Simulation results of the GRS-IBS behavior corresponding to various levels of compaction effort are presented and discussed, including lateral facing displacements, settlements, and maximum tensile forces in the reinforcement layers. Results indicate that greater backfill compaction leads to smaller bridge seat settlement and backfill compression, but also results in larger lateral facing displacements.

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Simulating the Behavior of GRS Bridge Abutments

Cited by 57 publications

References 13 publications

Limit Analysis Optimization of Design Factors for Mechanically Stabilized Earth Wall-Supported Footings

Limit Analysis Optimization of Design Factors for Mechanically Stabilized Earth Wall-Supported Footings

Physical Model Tests of Half-Scale Geosynthetic Reinforced Soil Bridge Abutments. I: Static Loading

Numerical Study of the Compaction Effect on the Static Behavior of a Geosynthetic Reinforced Soil-Integrated Bridge System

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