The theory of soil arching and its refinements has been used extensively to predict loads on buried conduits. More recently, it has been combined with tensioned membrane theory for problems of load or grade support in subsidence problems such as karst terrain or “piggyback” landfills. The output wanted from such analyses is usually the amount of geosynthetic reinforcement required, specified by the tensile strength. However, due to simplifying assumptions used in the combined soil arching and tensioned membrane theory, some designs may not accurately model the true behavior. In the applications cited, there are already considerable uncertainties in the size and shape of the voids and the rigidity of its boundaries. Therefore, it is critical that the limitations of the existing reinforcing design methods are well understood.
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