Geosynthetic Reinforced Soil Integrated Bridge System Synthesis Report

APPENDIX B. PREDICTION DATA FOR ANALYTICAL EQUATIONS

B.1 INTRODUCTION

Seventeen tests were used to validate the soil-geosynthetic capacity and required reinforcement strength equations. The complete set of data from these tests is presented in table 7.

Table 7. Prediction data for large-scale tests.

B.2 SOIL-GEOSYNTHETIC CAPACITY EQUATION

The load-carrying capacity of a GRS wall and abutment (q_ult,an,c) can be evaluated using an analytical formula (equation 3). For this equation, the calculated capacity matches well with the measured capacity from large-scale tests (see figure 12). The numerical results of this comparison are presented in table 8. Note that for long-term design, cohesion (c) and confining stress (σ_c) are assumed to equal zero and should not be accounted for.

Table 8. Soil-geosynthetic capacity equation validation results.

B.3 REQUIRED REINFORCEMENT STRENGTH EQUATION

For the required reinforcement strength equation (equation 13), the calculated strength matches well with the actual strength at rupture from large-scale tests (see figure 16). The biggest differences occur with some of the GSCS tests, which had a uniform confining pressure applied.⁽¹⁰⁾ This confining stress will likely not be present in an actual GRS-IBS application. The numerical results of this comparison are presented in table 9. Note that for long-term design, the cohesion (c) and confining stress (σ_c) is assumed to equal zero and should not be accounted for.

Table 9. Required reinforcement strength equation validation results