Modelagem física de muros de solo reforçado: efeito da inclinação e rigidez da face, resistência na base e sobrecarga aplicada

Abstract

The influence of the facing’s inclination and stiffness, toe resistance and applied surcharge load were evaluated in the behavior of GRS walls under working stress conditions. Eight large-scale physical models of GRS walls were built at COPPE-UFRJ's Geotechnics Laboratory. The tension in the reinforcements, horizontal soil stress at the back of the wall face, the horizontal displacement of the face of the wall and vertical displacement at the top of the wall were monitored. The results were compared with those obtained using physical modeling by Mirmoradi (2015). The stresses measured in the reinforcements were compared with the values calculated using a limit equilibrium method (Simplified AASHTO, 2017) and three others based on working conditions (Allen and Bathurst, 2015; Ehrlich and Mirmoradi, 2016 and Wang et al., 2018). The methods, in general, overestimate the tensions in the reinforcements in walls with restrictions to the movement of the base. This fact was evidenced by the attenuation of stresses in the reinforcement layer closest to the base. In a free base condition, in walls close to vertical (ω = 6º), the Allen and Bathurst (2015) method led to underestimated and overestimated results in walls with face of blocks and wrapped, respectively; the method Ehrlich and Mirmoradi (2016) and Simplified AASHTO (2017) presented reasonable estimations, and the method Wang et al. (2018) overestimated the measured stresses. With increasing face tilt and applied surcharge load, the degree of conservatism of the methods decreased considerably. In case of variables surcharges load, the Ehrlich and Mirmoradi (2016) method presented the best estimations.