Upper Bound Solutions for Ultimate Load of Reinforcedsand Retaining Walls

Abstract:

Model test results show that the failure mode of reinforcedsand retaining walls can be simplified into a twowedge block.Based on the abovemotioned failure mode and the upper bound theorem of classical plasticity theory limit analysis,the upper bound solutions for the ultimate load of reinforcedsand retaining walls under front loading and back loading are derived with a consideration of the effects of facing rigidity.By applying a nonlinear sequential quadratic programming (SQP) algorithm,the proposed upper bound solutions for each analytical expression is optimized for solving.Based on the proposed computational method,a series of the upper bound solutions for the ultimate load of reinforcedsand retaining walls are solved.Results show that the computational solutions agree well with the ultimate loads obtained from the physical model experiments,and the proposed upper bound method can reasonably consider the effect of the reinforced layer numbers and the facing rigidity on the ultimate load of reinforcedsand retaining walls.