Reprinted from the Procedings of the SYMPOSIUM ON EARTH REINFORCEMENT ASCE /Pittsburgh, PA/April 27, 1978 ‘RRINPORCED BART WALLS: A CHRIRIFUGAL MODEL, STUDY oy Matcola D. Botton”), 5, a Pa, Richart Pang?) Soieotivee, A sessarch programe has been under wey since 1975 at the Tniveraity of Manchester Institate of Sctence and Technology (WSR) with the objective of clarifying and proving a reliable aethod for the deaign of reinforced earth retaining walle, ‘the first task of any designer mst be to use his Judgment in order to select that one from the many fevatlable types of solution vhich appears aoet favourable to his client 40 the cirometances. After exerciaing his option, the deaigues's second task 1 to ao proportion his desien that 1t would mest his client's wishes on safety, utility, economy, 1ife-expectancy, individuality or sppeerance Suppose that client demanis sone separation of grout levels. His designer will presumably frat check to enmure that a simple soll ‘slope will not meet the client's wishes, and will then use his judguent to select a type of retaining vall construction. The possible range of options 1s symbolised in figure 1 and soclndes (a) nase vail (») cantstever valle, (0) anchored cantilever valle, (8) reintorved ‘arth valle and (0) cantilever walls with relieving platforas, Type (a). (0) and (c) are well uerstood.in terme of the mechanios of structural elements in tension, compreosion or bending, (1) tectarer; (2) Post-Doctoral Research Vorker; (3) Research Worker: Department of Civil Rgineering, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, .0. Box 66, Mamebeeter, ngland, 22CENTRIFUGAL MODEL STUDY (a) Moss watt (i) Contiewer Walls 6 Arte. Cntive: (a) Rented Eartha Conte wih sa acs Relieving Platforms. tout platforms, Vx patos, Fig 2 Tsogoreli's Relieving Platforms,254 EARTH REINFORCEMENT ‘me renaining eyatens of reinforced earth ant relieving platforms exe leas conventionel solutions which are xeaszkable for the extrese diversity of their authors! otyles of description. Vidal (1969) describes the action of iaplanting frequent horizontal levers of tensile reinforcenent in ters of the generation of « nev composite material ich poosenses tcoheaton', Vidal epeaks of the whole reinforcet mass fas "the wall! end caste doubt on the zelative importance of the role of ‘the front skin viich 42 in contact with the soll, Teagarels (1969) on ‘the other hand, desoribes the benefite of the rigid conection of one or nore relieving platforms in purely structural terme. tle pointe out ‘firstly that the outward monenta of the lateral earth pressure acting on ‘the wall above a shelf oan be equilibrated at the joint ty the Smart ‘moment due to the weight of earth lying on the shelf, He also resazks ‘that if the earth was loosely f11led, perhaps leaving a triangular exp ‘undemeath the shelf, the veight of earth shove the shelf would not rest on the goil beneath and vould therefore not cause lateral pressure on the portion of the wall beneath the ehelf, Teagarelits platforms oan be seen ‘to reduce the pressures acting on the face of the wall and, of greater Importance, to be capsble of altering the bending monent disgren for the face of the wall to almost any desired shape, ax shove in figure 2. Our fizet objective in researching reinforced earth walls vas to atteapt to clarify the Amotion of Vidal's componente in the sane sort of structural tema ap those used by the desimers of each of the aitemative aystens reviewed in figure 1, This seemed to be @ necessary pre-requisite if a deniger was to be able to make rational option. ar second objective wae to review the design procedures of Schlosser and Vidal. (1969) and Lee ot al (1973) based upon their many laboratoryCENTRIFUGAL MODEL STUDY 255, aod few field soale experinenta. Hy confucting a mmber of centrifugal ‘model teste of mall reinforced earth valle vhich approached sone sort of collapse, we hoped to de able to coment on the rational choice of ‘the proportions of such walle in practios Gente fuea) Modelling ‘The centrifugal model technique 1s ideally sulted to the clarification of the mechanics of nev soil constructions much as reinforced earth, The centrifugal modeller simply atteapts to construct 2 1/f eoale motel of sone prototype field structure viich interests hin, ‘using the sme materiale in a sintlar goonetry. He then observes the model as 1% is accelerated up to B tines earth's gravity. Pokrovakt and Fyodoroy (1968 A&B) deserthe the developacnt of the art and sotence of centrifugal modelling in the USSR eince ita introduction by okrovekt in the 1930's, Avgherinos ant Schofield (1969) aet out the requisemante for einilanity between model and prototype which have since ‘been used by research vorkere in the U.. The contral injunction is to employ {tention materials and geoustries, within bomdaries which are ‘thunselves similar or so remote as to be negligible, The use of scale faotore Hon Tength deceleration ith suffices m and p for model and prototype respectively, guarantees that the vertical otress 1, (0, 6, in the prototype te eqaal to ite snalogee ratial straes 1, (0, g, in the model constructed in Adentioal sateriate (0, = 0,» tte). Fron the equity of analogne vertical trons and the sintlarity of boundaries and landforns should flov the equality of analogue horizontal stress and indeed every other strese256 EARTH REINFORCEMENT component. If the changes of stress are correctly modelled, #0 should ‘the otrain be, and therefore the rates of dilation and the mobilised eagles of shearing resistance, The teste to be reported conoemed ‘only the statical equilibria of day sand in contact with metals, 00 ‘that the probless of dynamic aiailitaie recently discussed by Bow (1977) do not arias, The modal wore also proportioned and oriented as shown tn figure 3 20 a8 to reduce the errors in stress due to the non uniformity of the scceleration field to below 10% in the region of sntereet. ‘Toe itference between sequential construction and wholistic construction is aa mich a problen to the centrifugal modeller as Lt te ‘to the enalyet or computer modeller. Tt is inevitable thet a motel constructed wholly at 1 ¢ end than wholly accelerated wp to Ng will qecerate greater ctl atraina thin if each layer of soil hed been placed tg in sequence ca a partly deformed exb-etroctere, Strain path dependency in walitely to have played a large part in the pregent serien of modela which vere principally intented to offer data of collages, Te Modelo ‘Te interpretation of cur data ie exceedingly simple. Bach model, in the present phase was constructed to the dimensions given in table 2 and explained in figure 4 and was then observed ao it was eocelerated up to nome acceleration ratio ja, which was noted in each cane, It 4s pemissible to multiply every physical dimension of the model by a factor 1G tg i onter to arrive at a theoretically stable prototype at field scale. In most canes {¢ in not necessary to imagine thet the sol reine themselves are modelling larger graine in the field: St is ‘umally true that she actual size of grains is irrelevant if they are(CENTRIFUGAL MODEL STUDY 237 Fig 4. Configuration258 EARTH REINFORCEMENT charecterietically mich mmsller than the structurel elements, Yodel hich collapsed at mall values of H are axionatically less atrongly ‘reinforced than thove which ollapeet at higher values: supposedly ‘universal lintt-etate theory should be stow to de capable of predicting cy of there fattures. ‘The chotce of models naturally Linite the behaviour which is observed. ‘he global equilibrium of a heerily reinforced block has ‘een considered by Saith and Bransby (1576). The present teats hovever, have been focussed on to the problen of the sligpage or fracture of the einforoing stripe in a fairly wide wall which was built on 2 modima dense bed of sand, thereby mininising te Likelihood of monolithic collapse, The stripe vere buried flat in the dry sand and comeotad with f winple folded joint trough lite in « fotl skin watch vas typically 005mm thick. ‘Tair atrength and roughness vas ao chosen thet the ‘yptcal model could be Drought to a state of collapse either by altzpese of strong stripe or by tensile failure of xough, weak etripe, Table 1 show that model charsctariation are distributed sbout a nom hich corresponds at 50 gravities to o prototrpe approaching failure with » ‘om height and 7.50 long stripe at intervals of in vertically and 2.58 hortaontally. By using model tvice as long se the vall vas high, and by employing smooth end surfaces, the deformation of the wall was effectively constrained to be plane. In onder to validate any Limit state analyses At wae necessary, therefore, to assess the atrength of the well graded coarse to fine sand £111 in plane etreia. The dzy sand vas placed in ‘he model in layers by free-fall from a suspented hopper and a density of 17.0 to 17.5 kia? as achieved, corresponding to a relative density of ‘sbout 0.70 to 0.75 and a vold ratio in the vicinity of 0.55. Testa wereny 100} od oo T knit sah a «al oxs| ween tend and 3 & § stainless atest he Content ot 3 ow ° CENTRIFUGAL MODEL STUDY 259 rect ster test he © Plane Compression Test Lo Init Void Ratio’ = 050 8 et or ein Fig 5. t/ot on plane of [ t/0") peak. acirry etenstip of AT {ont dats ot ws ee “ae a a Oy uNInt Fig 6. Pull-out Tests on Stainless Steel Strips 60mm x 6mm x C10 mm, and +Smm dia. Mild Steet Rods buried in sand at an initicl Void Ratio e, = 0°50260 EARTH REINFORCEMENT conducted uaing both Gown square shear bor samples and Od oquare plane strain compression samples, on the sand at thi density. Dy following Arthur ot al (1977) 4m the semmmption that the hortsontal plane through a dizect sbear box is a plane of auxin obliquity of stress, and by analysing the Mohr eizle of strees for the compression ‘eet, 1 hus Deon possible in figure 5 to amalgamate the data in onder ‘to display the peak stress ratio. At & mall normal stress of 20 ki/a ‘the peak anele of shearing resistance ts seen to be at Least 50°, but ‘tate drope to 42° as the normal stress rises to 120 kia’, The ultinate angle of shearing xenintance corresponding to a critical state appeared, Doth from the trend in shear box resulte after the peak and froa loose slope angles, to be in the region of 35° almost txreepective of stress. ‘Ponce snd Bell (1971) are typical of recent authors who report an angle of effective shearing resistance increasing vith the reduction of streae. Comforth (1975) establishes that peak angles will exseed ‘ltinate angles by up to 17° ina typical dense sand in plane strain. Our own results may be considered typical of gramlar £111, therefore. Maree types of reinforcement have doen used in the UAIS? research programe: ¥S, mild steel welding rol 1.5an dlaneter ant copperconted ‘to prevent corrosions AL, aluminism fo11 of thickness 0.05mi and 55, stainless steel strip of thickness O.tm. ‘the firet ant thint of these camot conceivably breek in the centrifugal models but only slip, the second vas so proportioned that it could not break free by lack of frtotion but vould rupture asconding to various tensile tests at an average noninal tensile otress of 70 3/ma” having yielded at 50 X/ma". ‘he friction between the stronger reinforcements ant the sani was sbgected to close scrutiny, ‘the chosen method vaa to extract CmCENTRIFUGAL MODEL STUDY 261 rengthe of the Gam wide model 55 strips from thetr posttion, buted portsontally in a shear box containing the sand at the appropriate density. ‘Thin, wt aodel sonle, corresponds to a carefully instrmented pull-out test vinich might be attempted on a full-scale structure, Figure 6 represents the reoulte for stainless steel stripe expressed aa coefficient of friction /A over a range of working stresses, dn with the sand alone, the stress vas found to be en Saportant datexuinant of the angle of frlotion developed. The 1.5m Ataneter copper-costed 1 rods were much wore difficalt to use in the oll-out apparstoa due to their relative rigidity: figure 6 shows the ecbiteartiy assumed xelationshig trough the ooattered date, he round ‘barn aleo afforded the protien of an uinom stress distribution, ‘voereas the poll-out resistence of a flat atrip Bx I vas taken at BOL. p..Cyy 18 wan necessary to charectertoe that of the romd bexe by Yat A( 0.0) where O°, represents the average strees nomal to ‘he bar, igure 6 actoaliy plots ( j) ) mesrured at various vertical tresses Of: At vas aarmmed that both + and d vould be shared by the ull ont tent end the plane atrain aodel test, so that it wuld not be necensary to dsconple thea. Mectrto resistance strain guiges vere used in a fev later tests to find the tensile stress at various positions on the sodel ti Deldge olzcatte employing 2mm gmugee on the Gam wide stainless steel stripe have Deen show: to generate reliable remults vhen calibrated in a Hounsfield tensoneter. A high proportion of breaklowns has bal to be scoepted due to the extreaely hostile enviroment in vidch the excges vere placed. ‘Tid led to our xepeating a critical experinent many tines in order to aocumlate sufficient inforaation: mofela 19,20,27,55 and 36 Wale262 EARTH REINFORCEMENT were dentionl exoent an swpunte the dlqonttion of fentiontng rain gemge bridges. Their desien vas choom specifically to evox fatiure 0 an to ninintne the damage to the inttrmentetion: comparison with ‘test 22 shows that failure due to sneuffioteacy of friction was quite lone, Ghoudtmey (1977) shove a vaxy clove agrement between signale casnating from the sane Location in nolele witch were meant to be Adentical. An atteapt has also been nade to assess the distribution of ‘vertical pressure wer the model reinforced-eerth valle. Two total trove trunmducers with 10un iaeter dLephragas were calibrated both by ir preamure and by Aleposing then under « uniform layer of the sand snd centrifuging thea: they vere then insiallod at various positions beneath ‘the model valle. ALL the inetrumentation vas restricted to the oantral third of the vall, voll may from ite endo. ‘Tension Date ‘Toe inetrmented toate can be usel to generate sone notions concerning the distribution of stresses in a reinforced earth wall which 4 on the verge of collapes, of grestest concem to the destmer is the latetiution of tenalon in the reinfornent, and figure 7 depicts the fom of the data scoumlated in models 19,20,27,35 and 36 viich 4 concentrated in the front sone of the seinforoment in onder to locate aod quantify the maxima tmsions, he Line of maximum tension vas independent of acceleration and te rously vertical ont 4om inside the 200m high face, The tensions must obviously arop to sero at the Loowe ends, but they are also seen to drop quite steeply towards the joint at ‘the fave, eepectally neer the base of the wall, Bach etrend of reinforcement serves 8 foce area 5, 8, and {t {= therefore clear that the ssverage Interal earth presmure acting on the face ( O7,) oan be computed(CENTRIFUGAL MODEL STUDY 263 Zone of Maximum Tension, Reinforcement Layer sks Skat Shot Skt Fig 7. Tension Distribution in Models 19, 20, 27,33 and 36 at N Gravities up to N= 130.264 EARTH REINFORCEMENT An the locality of a relnforeing str{p vinge tension at the face te Tego? NDT UT Ch sane = Gin co) Bolton et al (1977) demonstrated that, ", Oo mae as ® 4 also « reascoable ayprosinate relationship between the laters arth pronmure ant roinforoment tension wt any depth in the s000 of saximum tension 1¢ hia 49 only & short dlatance Dehind the fa00, equation 2 provides on acceptable way of eatinating the lateral arts preamures in a sone of macimm tenston just behind the £200 of ‘the wall, 4 only requizeo « comeeponting eetiaate of vertioal earth ‘reeeure in the same sone in coder to tum the data of figure 7 into map of earth preamure costficiente. Figure 8 displays data of vertical proarure under the base of the mele, Ae the acceleration won sooreased there was 1ittle tendanoy for any change in shape of th dstesbution, which wan almost uniform and equal to the simple overburden pressure ¥H where the unit weight of the sand = NP. ‘tere was nevertheless, an increase of wp to 296 in the base preerure sa ‘th sesion provicorly identified en that of maxim tention, Closer to ‘tie face, the presmare appeared to drop to at Least 106 below the sverage ovezvarten prvamise, Ghoudary (1977) mowed oat a sn0reane of 30% in the Dene prvamare vas not uma. in the maxiame-tension sone, ot that equal reductions in pressure frequently occurred at the berted of the base of the reinforced zone, Tt is naceasary to attemt to qmoeraline this observation, and this 1a urually accomplished by reference to the thrust of the Dackfi1] erarted on the varied wide of theCENTRIFUGAL MODEL STUDY spoig_peniojuiey 0 96 EE LZ SIPPOW JO e80g Oy punosd suoynqijsig sseys 6 63 YP Sesse4js JDoH4e, JO LONNgIYSIQ 9 B14 mA mA ash sob Y v 1) ee] ot | aod] WA mA A jain een ween YH ASOD, it266 EARTH REINFORCEMENT reinforced nase. It So very diffioult to dray the 'free-body! diagram for the control voluse of a reinforved earth mass, due to Ate retudancy, As a guide, the prine requirenent in otructeral design in that components should be in equilibrium with the applied loads. A eecond xequizenent ie that no component should deform excessively: this nay be guaranteed in xigit-plastic material if the yield oriterion has ‘nowhere been approached. Figure 9 desonstrates thet a simple ‘trapezoidal distribution of presnure at the base can be muffictent to aatinfy the broad requizenenta of a 'plastict deeign {n vitch equilibrium sod the non-riolation of the MohmCouleab criterion are parsacunt. Ao altemative uniform base preomute defies equilibrium of the control volume by rotation about the aid point A of the base, dn altemative Mayexnot-type distribution eftes the Nokmcoulonb criterion at the buried ‘heel of the reinforced mass with sero vertical effective stress. The sseumption of a horizontal torust frou the backfill Le « pessimistic gesture typical of Rankine's analysis of walla: the analyst danagee the dackface of the muse by draving @ frictionless vound through {t, before analysing it. If the simple trapevoidal distribution be siopted, the vertionl stress at the front of the vall 4 inoreased to, Coe = EQ H BAP 1m onder to couterbatance the overtuming ronent. A vertical atreer Ce Bede A oy ‘may therefore be a reavonable and pessimistic estinate in the sone of peak tension, The date of figure 7 can be used to assess the usefulness and validity of equations 2 and 3. Figure 10 Uioplays the estinated values of OF, and O% in the zone of peak tension ot each level and at eachOp =Tax !8y Sp KN? y= W 154Sh KN In? ao CENTRIFUGAL MODEL STUDY Meodelt 27, 93, 96: No fallore, Re 495, 00a ‘S00 To) y= WEL KZA LAD RMI Fig 10. Estimated Earth Pressures in the Zone of Maximum Tension Models 27, 33, 36: No failure, Depth 191 m 81 1 Wo at 300 0 Gy ANY U1 2 hye FUT ENT mt Fig 1t Estimated Earth Pressures near the Face of the Wall. [T, measured 10-15mm from face)268 EARTH REINFORCEMENT acceterution increment 1p to the maxim of 130, reoelling ‘tant there vas no collapse, Superiaponed on the étagren ace the conventional earth pressure coefficiente Ky = (t= ain gy + ain 9) for soll at fatiure with ite affective Hobr cizole of atrese tangential tof Lines, and Jakg's K, = (1 ~ ain #") for soft tn one-dimensional ‘plastic compression. The E-Lines are seen to de curred due to the Aepentence of fon (“seen in figure 4, taking care to scovunt for the stress on the active planes. The data is very well orgmnised, vith the over quarter of the constmction ine clearly active coniition in the sone of peak tension, an the wpper half in en apparent conformity with ‘he K, parameter. Very cintlar rerulte vere obtained for adel 20 which eventually cape to friotion fatlure, exept that the majority of date ‘fe11 olose to the F, line, Oscesionsl tension readings in other models contizned the picture of figure 10. ‘re equation 1 49 wel to estinate the Lateral pressure close to the ‘fave of the wall, and equation 3 to eotinate the vertical pressure, figure 11 reeulte, Aotive earth presures may evidently apply in the ‘upper half of the wall, but the lateral pressures in the lover half are ‘ess than the eimple prediction, Clearly the earth pressure coefficient cannot be leas then K,, The vertical stress close to the wall mat ‘etsply te snsller, indeed lose than one half of the prediction, for the lower sone, ‘the data of figure 8 have foremamed of this possibility treaty, the inferred reduction of both vertical end horizontal tress ‘trom the peak stress zone tovarda the face of the wall coupled with the eduction in tension in the reinforcement, marke out this sone, xeferred to by Sobloceer ant Tidal (1969) a8 the active zone of the construction,CENTRIFUGAL MODEL STUDY 269 ane (1 + Mash) aan. + SySn Ka 1+ Kaz! 0 poaroge T= Tas, 26 s deerge T moet HY? Fig 12 Simple Anchor Theory. Test 13 mon ett 9 ef LHe 00 8 Os ger {ti 20:50% 075 vest 6 LIN 87 est $+ in-050 key eae aso" - kq020 Koo SAFE UNSAFE 5 Gie ota ook yo 0, oO Predicted R= P/KaY2 SySqIT + Ka? UT Fig 2. Tension Failures : Prediction tor Lowest Broken Tie.20 EARTH REINFORCEMENT es one of great complexity, The stresses on the face mst clearly be train dependent ‘Yaslure of om taster ‘Toe eocceaatul analysis in terms of earth pressure coefficients of the date of reinforced earth valle approsshing « friotion-fatlure sggonte the yorsible utility of a Raskine-type analysis for the earth prearure on the fase of the wall at the point of collapee, As far at ‘We face and Ste fointe are concerned, mush an analyaia would appear to be poneinistic ant safe, Pigure 12 depicte vhat must mov be viewed as 0 apcbored wall uit, ‘he vertical stress immediately behind the feoing panel 1s estinated peosinistically to be $2 (1 + K, 27/1") vere H, cooditions have been assunet in the retained £111, the lateral proorre of F % 5 (1+ 4, 27/2) exentn o tension at the front of the anchor of 8,8, F, 8 % (1 +, 27/1?) watcn must de dissipated in shear stress on the rurface of the anchor so an to reduce to sero at ite busied, free, ood, Tt {0 a otaple matter therefore, to declare a pessinistic factor of antety against tension fatiure to bet me 2- 2 art r err ere 2) i Te fo wach Lose onay to deal safely with the possibility of frletion faiture, It 4, on the other bant, easy to be optiniatic and to Aeclare that the vhole upper and lover surfaces of a strip anchor be considered capeble of resisting forvand sliding with an average shear stress of M¥%, This leads to a fuctor against friction fatlure ee et RP ras On, PA) (5a) co in the case of a rod of diameter BCENTRIFUGAL MODEL STUDY ™m % > TiAl () x 9,8, +n, 2A) ‘Tee propitious aftectively coincide with the vorking hypotinats of ‘the laboratotre Central des Foote ot Chaunsees reported by Schlosser and Long (1974). Te te a fatsly ateple matter to compere the evidence of the 13 Friction fallures ated in table 1 with the prediction of equation 5, ont the 7 tension failures vith equation 4. the most significant Aettoulty ta over the choloe of the gotl's angle of friction, If we have been successful with the data of figure 4 then g* in the sodel should reach © peak value in the region 42° to 50° depending on the stress across the plane of aazinua stress obliquity, At 150 grerities ‘the vertical stress at the base of the model in roughly 450 ki/a’, 20 ‘the stress on the plane of peak soil stress ratio will be sbout 125 kil/a” ‘and the peak angle of friction roughly 42° from figure 4. At mid-height the peak * would be about 46° riaing to 50° tovarda the top, again at 130 greritios, In onder to reflect the inevitable uncertainty over the eppropriate etreagth, we have chosen to wee both f= 42° corresponding to , = 0.20 and $* = 50° corresponding to K, = 0.15 in the back analyoee, Bach predicted model faiture ia then represented as horizontel bar covering the 42° to 50° interval in angle g*. Figure 13 deplete the factor of safety against tention failure cnlewtated ty equation 4 for cash of the models in vitoh an autopey shoved that wone anchor hed broken, The factor is osleulated for the overt anchor vich sctually troke, and is show to be quite competent since the values are spread around the xequized value of nity trreepeotive of the strength of the model, viich Le represented by the scoeleration ratio to which 1t could be mbjected. the utility of them EARTH REINFORCEMENT tevpesliat enmoent factor (1 + 5, 22/2) oan be Jott by the lowe fit betimenaolale of very Aitforent amect ration. Hotels 14 aot 10 with if sation of 0.5 wuld have id tnoretioal feotone of safety about 1. ‘tines center had it not been for the use of the fectort auch a theoretical factor vould have been very much in error ‘on the unsafe aide and ve vould have generated severe scatter in the eulte, Choudimry (1977) seeazks that the lovest failing anchor vas very eeldon in the lovest level of anchors at 190m depth but rather et 1Tom or 150m, If this had not been accounted for in figure 15 the ‘theoretical factors of safety vould have been about 0.8 tines lower 20 ‘that the prediction of fatlure would have been just a little more pessinistic. Figure 14 depiota the factor of safety against friction fatlure caleulated by equation 5 for each of the models in which an autopey shoved that « collapes had taken place without any structural component ‘eing droken. The analynia was made for the base of the vall at depth B= ts / tn enaller, K, gcvnter ant 2/1, grater at the dase of the vall, leading to the amallent safety factor for anchors. The theoretical factor 19 show to be very well capable of dealing with low I/ff ratios: ‘the prediction for test 16 would have deen grossly musafe vere it not for the presence of the trapezoidal factor. Likevise an enomous range of materiale and epacings have been brought into constatent account. ‘The use of peak soll strength from figure 4 and the nost optinistic anchor theory would evidently generate a safety factor of roughly 1.25 for each back analysis, This slightly unsafe condition could be eliminated in a variety of pragatic ways: perhsps the most straight forvard would be to eaploy a conservative angle cf friction of 42° forN. Groves of Future, CENTRIFUGAL MODEL STUDY m test] ss unsomn rest 22] is tatoo Tests | eS L075 Test tL Tetnsow 100 eat 10 ps ters MS. Uis075 Fe cs uso et pT itat00 wette ——}—s uneors est EE Cio teat 2 Ts Un-080 a a a Predicted f= 2BLU/KySySpI1 RH of TEBLUAILI/KgS Sit KZ1] o's Stipe, toc WS Reds, Fig 14. Friction Failures: Prediction for Lowest Tie. fos [rie trent 06 of24 EARTH REINFORCEMENT siding collapses, on the grounds that the lexgy localised strains ich vere evident could well have carried the sot) beyond ite pesk rate of tlstancy , the deciaion on #* will doninate the accuracy of deniguer and research worker alike, seca of twee fontzte over votes fetus tn Dosim amiact ‘The back analynie of the centrifugal models has not yet revealed any rogue failure which Se attributable to groan errore in the anchor ‘tneory. On the contrary 1t would appear that the accurecy of the conception of a reinforced earth construction at failure as an ‘aseesblage of indtvidual anchors only just holding beck snail areas of eoing, bas boon demonstrated with even more certainty than have the widely accepted conventional conceptions reganting cantilever vals Tt noms that 2 designer would be perfectly justified in treating « reinforced earth retaining wall as a multi-anchor vall with long porizontel anchors, This may well clear hie mint concerning the problen of chotoe of aysten from the options of figure 1, The advantages of the acho concept over the echeaton concept are greatest, however, hen considering the detailed dein of components. The deaigner oan safely be left to guant both against Rankine's active stresses causing global novenent by acting on the rear face of the block, and against oisiler ‘stresses on the front skin causing tearing of the face, rupture of the Joint or anchor, or slippage of the anchor. He need not be burdened ith Long composite calculations which attempt to equate sliding and restraining forces of assumed Couloub wedges viich may cut across ‘einforoeuante of various spacing and strength and which vill typically cout throogh soil with a friction angle reducing with dept. made may not only eteplity his design equations but alec save hisCENTRIFUGAL MODEL STUDY ns reputation, If he vere to fail to follow exactly the tormicu mathematical echene set out by Banerjee (1975) for example, the designer could vell find hineelf inferring that reinforcenente break simitaneously at every depth, oven vbere they may be equally etrng and at equal spacing, since this seemed to be an outcane of the Ceuiload etp murtac 421 published evidence denies the possibility that the laters) pressure can bo constant with depth: our ow results, which imply only little ‘rediotribution beyond the trimguler, are typical. If the deoigeer had expected all anchors to fatl in tenaion aimlteneously in our centrifugal motels, concerted in their attempt to cary the bunden of the lateral oll thrust, he vould have been forced to conclule that As alvaye, the slip muzface tectnique is optimistic, m+ __ér 2 2 ERS SURF) OPES Ss BORA?) 2% (6) ‘Male would have doubled his estination of the factor of safety vhich wuld ‘then have been in grove extor if figure 13 can be relied upon, the fudanental mistake of eaploying mechanime uch as wedges in the design againet tension fatture of reinforced earth walls 1 not rectified by following Banerjee in choosing the lowest altemative of the strength P of an anchor and the pull-out resistance § of that part witch Lies out- ‘de the Couloub wedge. Figure 15 depicts the most severe test of euch ogict the top anchor bed hae been made into part of « neighbouring sub ‘structure oo that both P and § may economically be made very Large indeed. Tt ought to be clear that neither P nor S mat be used in gach as ‘equation 6 since the lateral stress at the vall fave vill be totally ‘umable to generate such a large forse, The true collapee mechanien would clearly not involve failing the strong top anchor.26 EARTH REINFORCEMENT ‘Tt ehould be xecognised that the pattern of ruptures observed after ‘a tension failure, witch have been described by Lee et al (1975) ae ying along & Coulomb slip plane ie, as Schlosser and Vidal (1965) meneete, a purely dynamic, Frogressive phenonenon, Ghowdhury (1917) obeerved precteely the ame tort of Aistribution in the centrifugal model tents, The autopey Se totally misleading, as explained above, if At leads to an inagined simltaneous rupture of anchors. It should also be zecogntoed that the progressive failure, although catastrophic, ie due to the condition of leading rather than to any "brittle! bebaviour fm the materiale, Rankine's ‘plastic' loverbound type of analysis has ew show to provide a way respectable group of predictions. Soneloatone 1. Centetfugal modele support the proposition of Schlosser and Long (1974) that retnforced sarth retaining walls can be designed to fevoid collapse by treating then a mlti-anchor wells. Anchors can be made safe by consideration of sisple active carth pressures ‘normal to the fa00 of the construction, eahanced by « trapezoidal edjustnent to the vertical stress camsed by the thrast of the Deckfill, Well-spaced anchore can effectively develop theiz conffictent of friction over their groae area, and can seemingly tbe considered to be acted upon by the average overburden pressure. ‘The determination of aobiLiseuble angle of shearing resistance sppropriate to the stress and density of the eofl in the construction offers ty far the greatest problen to the designer. 2. Ef reinforced earth walls can be considered to be anchor valle, At may well prove coonoaio in certain eiroustances to replace horizontal strip anchors by conventions vertical plates retainedCENTRIFUGAL MODEL STUDY 2m ‘yy cables, Tn particular, the designer might benefit from the replacement of the top fev metres of a proposed reinforced earth retaining wall construction either by an identical akin retained by short cables loading to vertical anchor plates, or even by @ precast Inshaped wall section with « good crest detatl to contain dzaina, barrier, poste ote, Reinforced earth valle tend to ‘sdecrb an inefficient length ant thickness of reinforcement in ‘thetr shallow somos, ee (1976) pointed to a need for further research on the problen of pull-out or frtotion fatiure. the centrifugal models Amcortzate the surprising accuracy of the very simple strip sector caloulation, even when 1t {s extended to include rods. LIE the deatguer dove not atteapt to choose « geometry outaide those watch have been modelled in these tests (1/5, + 0.35, 8/5, % 0.75» 8/1 }0.5), oF thone of others, 1¢ may be safe to ignore Yheorstioal demons such as anchor interference, block pull-out of fa vertical colum of anchors with the intervening soil, xetuoed stress inclination so that } can not be developed, or the supposed presence in the lintt state of an active sone imedtately behind the fece, Indeed friction fatiure may be a less worthy candidate for research than other modes of collapse, since it may be quite sconoaie to provide a veny large safety fector against it, The weight of reinforcement 1s directly related to Tyy and not to Tt tn other vords the friction capacity can be improved siaply by spreading the sane weight of reinforcement over « wider plan area, Baal safety is only possible if a designer is amaze of every ‘ape of collapes mechantan viioh can exist, Pield-ecale tests,7 EARTH REINFORCEMENT ‘even if conducted, are hardly likely to generate the necessary Aiversity of behaviour pattern lesding to collapse, Indeed ‘euch teats are difficult to interpret mess they do lead to a collapse. Schlosser and Vidal (1969), Lee (1976), Chang et al. (1977) and Finlay and Sutherland (1977) each dencastrate that lateral stresses can exceed their active values within walls vhich id not fail. This may simply confiz the adequcy of designe ‘based upon active limit states, ant featuring safety factors. “The effect of K > K, is to move the Mohr-circle of the soil away from ite failure envelope: is this not the required effect of a aafety factor? If the soil is not collapsing, bow can the vall? Of course, it would be possible to use such a heavy compaction machine that the sof] was forced to push out the wall and permanently stretch the anchore, but this might te best accounted for by alding a generous notional surcharge to the simple Rankine ‘calculations rather than by attempting @ quasi-elastic analysis, Meny sinilar soll deformation problems, which are strictly outeide ‘the scope of limit analysis, may be solveable in an ad hoc mamer on site if the statf are vigilant. Apknowledyment ‘The vork described in this paper forms part of a study of the ‘dehaviour of earth retaining structures in progress at IMIST and is supported by research contract avarded ty the Transport and oad, ‘Research Laboratory. The views expressed are solely those of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Departnent of Transport ‘and the Brvizonment or of the Traneport and Road Research Laboratory,mpie 4 CENTRIFUGAL MODEL STUDY 29 Modele + E = 200m. Reinforcement - fypet MS mild steel rod; 55 stainless steel strip 4A aluniniuny Tension measuresent 7 Foundation Bed: GOm sani exept nodels 1! anf 12 on perspex. Model Langtne 400en except motels 2, 3-and 15 at 760mm. a aoa AS 5 fe i See ee Phat pain MK a ee | 48 1s 15 m0 iS 1S 45 3 000190 TR % we nS 45 2 m0 0.30 eo MEICTION to 9S 10 13 15 29 aT.5 1000.30 90 muICTION Sm 150 15 115 20 60 1000150 4 PRIORION 2s wos ts wo @ mo 0 muroTIO, Yon oon 1 6 on 3S 06 wm 2h het Mo 0 20.5 415 BT ONG 130 MRE te ws on eo 406. arorsom 2s 06 01 5 RT so rucrra sort 0 6 0 5 OT eo rarer: Mo 6 Os oT eo murray 3 sr 0 6 ot 205 ToT o arcries Hh 06 01 05 95 oT 33. marriou 1 6 OE ATS 8 22 mcr 16 00 6 ODS ATSB 2 macros ns wo 6 on 8 et 1e_ruerzon Ta a00 150.05 20 4 5 13 aL Ws 75 0052 2803 HO MEIN 9 a 10 75 00520 2 — 7 on 1s 0mm ote ce. oesrcu & aT 13 0.520 a5 28 ce mmsror 8m wo Ts owas 28 a ‘eo ‘ D5 0057) 48 OS 57 SmI ” 10 15 00320 47328 05 5 ON “ 100 75 010520 475-28 05 ESTO230 EARTH REINFORCEMENT Artine, J.R.P., Dunstan T., Alin QdoJoDey Assadty Ae (1977) Plastic deformation and fatlure in gramiar media Geotectnique 27, Ho. 1, 55-74. Avgherinos P.J, and Schofield 4.3. (1969). Demwiow fatlures of ‘centrifugal nodele, Proc: 7th Int.Conf.Soii Mech. & Pound. ages Mexico, V-2, 497-505- ‘Banerjee P.K, (1975). Principles of analysis and design of ‘peinforced earth retaining walle. Highway Rngineer Qondon) ¥.22 Wo. 1 15-18- Bolton M.D.» Chowdmary 8.P., Pang P.5.R. (1977). Modelling ‘Peinforced earth. P.tN.L,/feriot-watt University Symposiim on Reinforced arth, Biinburgh, Septeaber. Choudhury 8.P. (1977) A etuty of reinforced earth retaining valle Trith sand becktill by centrifugal modelling, Ph.D. Thesio, ‘WAST, Manchester, England. Comforth D.H. (1973)+_ Prediction of drained strength of sands from Delative deneity aeasurenenta, ASTM STP-523. ee Eels, Adame B.D. and Yagneron J.J. (1973). Reinforced earth fetaining walle. Journal S011 Mech, and Found. Div. {ASCE V9 SIO, 745-764. ine Kubs (1976). Soi etzength improvenent through reinforeenent ‘ASCE Animal Convention, Poiladaiphia P-A. September Pokrovaky G.t. and Fyoderov 1.8. (1966). A. Centrifugal model taeting in the construction industry. 31 Centrifugal model teeting in the mining industry. Miedra, Hoscow. once YoM. end Bell JK. (1971), Shear strength of sand at ‘extremely lov presgures, Journal Soil. Mech. and Found. Biv. ASCE VOT Sis 625-630. + Graig Wil, and Proctor D.C. (1977). Tynanteally loaded ‘Sentriftgal model foundations. Proc. 9th Int. Conf. Soil Moon, & Found, Eng., ToLyo. Schlosser P. and Vidal H. (1969). Reinforced earth, Bulletin de ‘itaiaon dea Laboratoires Boutiers Ponts et Chauscecs Bo. 41, Paris, Hoveaber. Bowe Pa Schlosser P. and Tong 8.7. (1974). Recent zesults in French ‘Research on reinforced earth, Journal Constr.Div., ASCB, ¥.400 005, 225-257.CENTRIFUGAL MODEL STUDY 2a Satth A.K.C. and Branaby P.T. (1976). ‘the failure of reinforced carta walle by overturning. Geotechnique, V.26 Bo. 2, S1e-et. Saith A.K.C, (1977). Reinforced earth, Ph.D, Thesis, Cambridge. eagareli 2.V, (1969). Hew methods of Lightweight wall construction. Strotisdat, Moscow. Vidal H. (1960). the prinoiple of reinforced earth. Higtnay ‘napearsh Record Wo, 252,