Insights on the numerical modelling of geosynthetic reinforced soil walls including varying atmospheric conditions

¹ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (DECA), Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya·BarcelonaTech (UPC), Campus Nord UPC, 08034 Barcelona, Spain E-mail: anibal.moncada@upc.edu, web page: https://camins.upc.edu/en
² International Centre for Numerical Methods in Engineering (CIMNE), Campus Nord UPC, 08034 Barcelona, Spain. Web page: http://www.cimne.com
³ VSL International Ltd, Barcelona, Spain. Web page: https://vsl.com
⁴ Geoengineering Centre at Queen’s-RMC, Civil Engineering Department, Royal Military College of Canada, Canada. Web page: http://www.geoeng.ca/

Abstract

Plenty of numerical models aimed to simulate and predict the stress-strain response of geosynthetic reinforced soil walls can be found in the literature, most of which are focused on the mechanical response. Geosynthetic materials have proven to have a time-, load-, temperature-, and, to some extent, moisture-dependent response. Thus, it seems natural to study thermal and hydraulic dependencies in numerical models. The present work details numerical models focused on mechanical and thermo-hydraulic responses. When appropriate, variable atmospheric boundary conditions, including temperature, relative humidity, and precipitation records are used. Constitutive models for reinforcement materials with temperature and moisture dependencies are explored. Mechanical simulations are compared with analytical design methods. Conclusions include comments and suggestion of the overall numerical modelling of reinforced soil walls.