Experimental and numerical modeling of moving retaining wall in expansive soil

ABSTRACT

Retaining walls are vertical structures to retain soil in place especially in hilly and mountainous areas to enable safety for roads, railways and other structures. These natural locations may be formed of clay soil with expansion characteristics. Such type of soil adds to natural lateral passive or active pressures additional swelling stresses and movement soil behind the wall. The aim of this investigation is to establish experimental and numerical modelling for the wall movement in an expansive soil. Achieving this is made by manufacturing a laboratory model of steel box having 950, 900 and 600 mm dimension for height, length and width, respectively, and the soil was laid in the box using specified compaction technique by layering. Specified condition of saturation and normal stress were applied. Certain wall movements were allowed and effect of that movements on the settlement of retained soil both vertically and horizontally were studied and evaluated. Also, during the unloading stage, the upheave of expansive soil behind the wall was also studied. The results showed that the vertical settlement of the soil increased linearly with wall movements. The settlement of the soil behind the wall was more than that away from the wall.

KEYWORDS:

• Expansive soil
• retaining wall
• experiments
• finite elements

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.