Response And Reliability Analyses Of Soil Nail Walls

Abstract

In the present thesis, studies on the response of soil nail walls subjected to static and seismic conditions using finite element based numerical simulations and the principle of reliability analysis have been performed. The basic methodology constitutes the study of various aspects of soil nail walls such as analyses of important external, internal and facing failure modes, development of axial forces, and displacement observations by considering various typical and prototype cases. For better understanding and presentation, subject matter of the thesis is organised in the following ten chapters. Chapter 1 of the thesis provides an introduction to the soil nailing technique and highlights some of its applications, advantages, and limitations. Chapter 2 provides a detailed review of existing literature on the soil nailing technique. Chapter 3 provides a detailed overview the various methodologies adopted in the thesis for the analyses and response study of the soil nail walls. Chapter 4 deals with the important aspects related to the plane strain finite element based numerical simulations of soil nail walls. In particular, addresses the implications of the use of advanced soil models and the consideration of bending stiffness of soil nails on the overall response of the soil nail walls. Chapter 5 presents finite element simulations based appraisal of the conventional design methodology of soil nail walls, and studies the response of typical soil nail walls under static and seismic conditions. Chapter 6 presents a reliability based study of the important failure modes of soil nail walls subjected to the variability in in-situ soil parameters, and highlights the importance of reliability analysis in context of soil nail walls. Chapter 7 proposes load and resistance factor design (LRFD) methodology in context of soil nail walls, and highlights the need in advancement of the existing conventional design methodology for soil nail walls. Chapter 8 illustrates the use of factorial design of experiment methodology in developing regression models for stability criteria analysis of soil nail walls. Chapter 9 proposes methods for assessing the adequacy of field pullout tests performed in accordance with the prevalent soil nailing guidelines. Further, a reliability based methodology is proposed for the evaluation and various applications of field pullout tests results have been illustrated. Chapter 10 summarises the various studies reported in the thesis and provides a few important conclusions. It is believed that the various studies reported in the thesis contribute to the enhancement of the existing knowledge on soil nailing technique, advancement in the analysis and design methods, and in general, are useful to the soil nailing practice.