Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Modeling the Time-Dependent
Behavior of Geosynthetically
Reinforced Soil Structures with
Cohesive Backfill
V. N. Kaliakin
University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware, U.S.A.
M. Dechasakulsom
Road Research and Development Center, Bangkok, Thailand
1 INTRODUCTION
The popularity of soil structures reinforced with mechanical inclusions has
brought to light the important issues of service life and durability. Unlike other
civil structures, the load-bearing elements of reinforced soil structures are
difficult to inspect, and essentially impossible to maintain. In addition, they are
buried in soil, a complex environment with physical and chemical characteristics
that may vary greatly from site to site.
When geosynthetics such as geotextiles and geogrids are used as the
reinforcement, long-term performance becomes an even more important issue.
This is because geosynthetics are generally manufactured from polymer
materials that exhibit a load, load rate, and temperature-dependent elastic-
viscoplastic behavior.
For geosynthetically reinforced soil structures with a long design life (e.g.,
70-120 years), long-term performance is obviously of importance. In the design
of such structures, stability and serviceability considerations require that the
reinforcement (1) not attain its ultimate state of collapse; i.e., tensile rupture
(a strength criterion), and (2) not develop excessive strain over its design life
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