PSI - Issue 39

Abdoullah Namdar / Procedia Structural Integrity 39 (2022) 57–64 Author name / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000

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4. Results and interpretation The cracked zone is a critical part of the soil backfill and seismic stability of this part, impacts on the load transferring to the earth retaining structure. The results of the nonlinear finite element method and the statistical modeling are supporting for the gravity retaining wall and clayey backfill soil design. Figure 5 demonstrates the total stain component for the maximum principal of models 1 and 2, in the last stage of the numerical simulation process. According to the results of the numerical simulation at the last stage of simulation presented in figure 5, the lower strain is needed to collapse of soil backfill if the crack is developing in the backfill crack zone. According to the results of the analytical method, the cohesion and density of the clayey soil are the main parameters for the minimization of crack depth. With higher cohesion and lower density of the clayey soil, the depth of the crack is reducing.

Fig. 5. The strain fluctuation relates to soil crack simulation.

Figure 5 shows during the soil backfill are under vibration, each crack in the backfill crack zone has a different extension. Each crack exhibits a different mechanism at each stage. In addition, strain energy distribution in the soil backfill relates to the crack developing in the model. Figure 6 shows vertical displacement of the backfill is changing with the development of the crack on the crack zone. The range of the displacement for backfill without crack is from 58.96 to -11.18 and the range of the displacement for backfill with 3 cracks is from 56.76 to -20.96. The displacement mechanism of the model with extending cracked zone is modifying. With the crack extension on the model, the vibration mechanism is changing, and this process influences the propagation of the displacement. The elimination of the cracked zone is significantly minimizing the displacement and improving the failure mechanism of the model. With the initiation of the crack, displacement in the unloading process is increasing.

Fig. 6. The displacement of models 1 and 2.

Figure 7 shows vertical displacement of the backfill in all stages of the numerical simulation using the histogram technique. Figure 7 demonstrates the displacement mechanism of the model in form of a histogram. The histogram is showing changing of displacement in all stages of the numerical simulation with developing the crack on the crack