Engineering Geology

Engineering Geology

Optimum Design of Soil Nailed Walls Based on Deformation Criterion under Seismic Loads

Authors
P Naghshin
H Shahir
Department of Civil Eng., Faculty of Eng., Kharazmi University
10.18869/acadpub.jeg.10.2.3517
Abstract
Soil nailing is a prevalent method for temporary or permanent stabilization of excavations which, if it is used for permanent purposes, the seismic study of these structures is important. There are a few physical models, with limited information available, for the study of behavior of soil nailed walls under earthquake loading. Numerical methods may be used for the study of effects of various parameters on the performance of soil nailed walls, and this technique has been used in the current paper. In this research, the effects of various parameters such as the spacing, configuration, and lengths of nails, and the height of wall on seismic displacement of soil nailed walls under the various earthquake excitations were studied. To investigate the effects of the configuration and the lengths of nails on the performance of these structures, two configurations of uniform and variable lengths of nails have been used. To study the effects of the spacing between nails and the height of the wall the spacings of 2 and 1.5 meters and the heights of 14, 20, and 26 meters have been considered. The seismic analysis has been carried out using the finite element software Plaxis 2D. To analyze the lengths' of nails, it was assumed that the safety factors of stability of different models are constant, and the limit equilibrium software GeoSlope was used. After specification of the lengths of nails based on constant safety factor of stability, the deformations of the models under several earthquakes records were analyzed, and recommendations were made on minimizing the deformations of soil nailed walls under seismic loading.
Keywords
Soil-nailed wall
seismic behaviour
finite element modeling
seismic displacement
time history analysis
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Engineering Geology
Volume 10, Issue 2 - Serial Number 26
Autumn 2016
Pages 3517-3536