Modelling and simulation of load transfer in reinforced soils: Part 1

Results of both triaxial and direct shear tests on reinforced soil samples performed by different investigators have shown that soil dilatancy and extensibility of the reinforcements have a significant effect on the generated tension forces in the inclusions. An appropriate soil‐‐reinforcement load transfer model, integrating the effect of soil dilatancy and reinforcement extensibility is therefore needed to adequately predict forces in the inclusions under expected working loads. This paper present a load transfer model assuming an elastoplastic strain hardening behaviour for the soil and an elastic‐‐perfectly plastic behaviour for the reinforcement. This model is used to analyse the response of the reinforced soil material under triaxial compression loading. A companion paper present the application of this model for numerical simulations of direct shear tests on sand samples reinforced with different types of tension resisting reinforcements. The model allows an evaluation of the effect of various parameters such as mechanical characteristics and dilatancy properties of the soil, extensibility of the reinforcements, and their inclination with respect to the failure surface, on the development of resisting tensile stresses in the reinforcements. A parametric study is conducted to evaluate the effect of these parameters on the behaviour of the reinforced soil material. An attempt is also made to verify the proposed model by comparing numerical predictions with available experimental results of both triaxial and direct shear tests on reinforced soil samples. This model can be used for analysis and design of reinforced soil walls with different types of tension resisting inclusions to predict tension forces under expected working loads.