Reinforced walls – Effect of the distance between reinforcements on reduced models

Evaluate the influence of the relationship between the reinforcement stiffness and the soil stiffness on the behavior of soil structures reinforced with geosynthetics can contribute to a better comprehension of the structure mechanisms. Finite Element analysis of physical models could represent a valuable tool to better understand some of the effects acting in these structures. The behavior observed in tests conducted on physical reduced models representing a reinforced wall submitted to a loading applied trough a footing on the top of the structure, are compared to results of finite element analysis of this structure. The physical reduced models use reinforcement materials able to represent real reinforcements, chosen from the Π Buckingham Theorem considerations, and vary the spacing between reinforced layers. The structures were analyzed using the finite element software PLAXIS. This work presents the analyses of three models: one reinforced material with three different spacing between layers. As presented in the results, it is possible to observe that a change on the soil reinforcement spacing meant an increase on the soil elasticity modulus, hence, increasing the confining stresses on the reinforced layer. As greater, the soil elasticity modulus, more significant is the gain on the confinement (iteration effect).