A fluência dos geossintéticos encontra-se entre as propriedades mais relevantes no projeto de estruturas de solo reforçado com esses materiais. A caracterização desse fenômeno emprega ensaios normalizados e de baixa complexidade, que apresentam dois aspectos negativos principais: a duração e o fato de não considerarem o efeito da interação dos geossintéticos com o solo circundante. Ensaios conduzidos em temperatura elevada e em câmaras que simulam o confinamento do solo apresentam-se como alternativas para solucionar cada um desses empecilhos, mas apenas separadamente. Diante disso, esta pesquisa visou desenvolver um novo equipamento para realização de ensaios de fluência em geossintéticos que incorpora, simultaneamente, ambas as medidas utilizadas para mitigar esses dois aspectos. Cinco tipos de geossintéticos (duas geogrelhas, dois geotêxteis não tecidos e um geotêxtil tecido) foram submetidos a ensaios de fluência em diferentes condições de confinamento e temperatura, de maneira combinada ou não. Ensaios de ruptura por fluência em condição confinada e a determinação da resistência à tração residual de corpos de prova submetidos à diferentes períodos de fluência também foram incluídos no programa experimental. O novo equipamento mostrou-se bastante versátil, permitindo a realização de quatro tipos de ensaios: convencionais, confinados, acelerados e confinado-acelerados. As deformações por fluência mostraram-se dependentes do confinamento nas geogrelhas e nos geotêxteis não tecidos e independentes no geotêxtil tecido. Assim, destaca-se que as geogrelhas tiveram um comportamento em fluência diferente daquele previsto na literatura técnica, uma vez que as deformações por fluência desses materiais são comumente referidas como independentes do confinamento. A elevação da temperatura de ensaio mostrou-se eficaz para a aceleração das deformações por fluência em todos os geossintéticos testados. Adicionalmente, verificou-se que a resistência residual dos geossintéticos é pouco afetada pela ocorrência de deformação por fluência. O novo equipamento para realização de ensaios de fluência em geossintéticos permite considerar um dos aspectos mais controversos no projeto de estruturas de reforço de solo com geossintéticos sob uma nova perspectiva. / Creep behavior plays an important role in geosynthetics reinforced soil structures. Its characterization is commonly performed by means of standard tests in which in-isolation specimens are subjected to a constant load while their elongation is measured over time. Despite their widespread use, standard creep tests present two main negative aspects. Firstly, they may last up to 10.000 hours. In addition, they do not consider the possibly significant effect of soil-geosynthetic interaction. Therefore, tests conducted under standard procedures may increase the costs of full creep behavior characterization and result in conservative parameters. Tests conducted at elevated temperature and with special chambers in which the specimens are subjected to confining stresses may be used provide an insight on the soil-geosynthetic interaction in accelerated tests. Both measures have been broadly published in the technical literature, but only independently. In this regard, this dissertation presents a new piece of equipment developed to conduct confined-accelerated creep tests on geosynthetics. Five different geosynthetics were subjected to creep tests with the new equipment (two geogrids, two nonwoven geotextiles and one woven geotextile). In addition, creep rupture tests were performed with both geogrids and the residual tensile strength of specimens were determined by tensile tests performed after creep tests in different conditions. The new creep test equipment was found to be able to performed four different types of test: conventional, confined, accelerated and confined-accelerated ones. The creep behavior of the geogrids was found to be confinement-dependent. This is not mentioned in technical literature. On the other hand, both types geotextiles behaved as expected regarding their confined creep behavior. The woven geotextile creep behavior was independent of confining stresses in sand whereas the nonwoven geotextile creep deformations were strongly reduced by confinement in sand. In addition, the creep deformations of every tested geosynthetic increased with temperature. The tensile tests performed after creep tests showed that the residual strength of the geosynthetics was approximately equal to the values found with virgin specimens. The new creep testing equipment performance was adequate, since it was able to simultaneously address both main concerns of standardized creep tests on geosynthetics.

Geogrid reinforced structures have been successfully used for over 25 years. However their design procedures have remained largely focused on ultimate failure mechanisms, originally developed for steel reinforcements. These are widely considered over conservative in determining realistic reinforcement and lateral earth stresses. The poor understanding of deformation performance led many design codes to restrict acceptable soils to selected sand and gravel fills, where deformation is not as concerning. Within UK construction there is a drive to reduce wastage, improve efficiency and reduce associated greenhouse gas emissions. For geogrid reinforced structures this could mean increasing reinforcement spacing and reusing weaker locally sourced soils. Both of these strategies increase deformation, raising concern about the lack of understanding and reliable guidance. As a result they fail to fulfil their efficiency potential. This Engineering Doctorate improved the understanding of horizontal deformation by analysing performance using laboratory testing, laser scanning industry structures and numerical modelling. Full-scale models were used to demonstrate a reduction in deformation by decreasing reinforcement spacing. Their results were combined with primary and secondary case studies to create a diverse database. This was used to validate a finite element model, differentiating between two often used construction methods. Its systematic analysis was extended to consider the deformation consequences of using low shear strength granular fills. The observations offered intend to reduce uncertainty and mitigate excessive deformations, which facilitates the further optimisation of designs.

Sliding failures of landfill cover systems are common, and the slip surface is often at the interface between a geosynthetic drainage layer and an underlying textured geomembrane. In an effort to understand the sliding failures, the objectives of this research project are to summarize current regulation and practice in landfill cover design, use experimental methods to characterize the behavior of geosynthetic landfill materials in cover systems approaching failure, and develop models to evaluate the hydraulic performance and stability of landfill cover systems. Inclined plane tests were conducted to explore the behavior of a geosynthetic drainage material/textured geomembrane interface. The interface had effective normal stress dependent strain softening behavior, with more strain softening measured at higher effective normal stresses. A numerical model for confined flow in a drainage layer with a constrained outlet was developed. The model was used to evaluate how water fills and empties from a geosynthetic drainage layer for a variety of inflow conditions and constraints to flow at the outlet. The model was used to demonstrate that a drainage layer that effectively conveys water out of a cover system with a free flowing drainage outlet quickly fills with water when the outlet has a modest constraint to flow. An iterative, numerical model was developed to calculate stability solutions for landfill cover slopes that satisfy force equilibrium and strain compatibility while accounting for effective normal stress dependent strain softening and various pore water pressure conditions. Stability solutions reveal that depending on the water pressure in the drainage layer, the geosynthetic drainage material may experience tension at many points along the slope. It is crucial for the stability of the landfill cover system to maintain free-flowing conditions at the drainage layer outlet. A modest constraint to flow at the outlet has a significant adverse effect on the ability of the landfill cover drainage layer to convey water out of the system, which can lead to instability. The drainage layer outlet should be designed to ensure free flow of water out of the drainage layer. / text

The influence of yielding foundations on the mechanical behaviour of reinforced soil walls including wall deformations and loads (strains) in the reinforcement layers is very complex. Based on a review of the literature, there is a need to quantify and isolate the influence of foundation boundary type and magnitude of foundation stiffness on deformations and reinforcement loads in geosynthetic reinforced soil walls. This thesis presents the results of a series of 1/6-scale reinforced soil wall model tests that were carried out to examine the influence of horizontal and vertical toe compliance and vertical foundation compressibility on wall behaviour. The heavily instrumented walls were constructed in a strongbox that was 1.2 m high by 1.6 m wide and retained soil to a distance of 2.3 m behind the facing. The models were uniformly surcharged in stages following construction. The experimental program consisted of three groups of tests. Group 1 tests involved five walls. One wall was constructed with a very stiff horizontal restraint, and three walls were constructed with different horizontal toe stiffness using combinations of coiled springs. The remaining wall in this series was constructed without any horizontal toe restraint. Group 2 was comprised of three walls. One wall was a control wall with a rigid toe. The other two walls were constructed with different vertical toe stiffness support using different combinations of rubber blocks. Group 3 included a control wall with a rigid foundation and a companion wall constructed with a compressible foam and rubber layers below the backfill soil and the wall facing. The results demonstrate that the quantitative behaviour of the models was affected by the type and magnitude of foundation stiffness. For example, as horizontal toe stiffness increased a greater portion of the total horizontal earth load against the wall facing was carried by the toe. The data showed that the shape of facing lateral deformation profiles changed from rotation about the toe for the case of a very stiff horizontal toe to a more uniform profile for the unrestrained toe case. For the case of a rigid vertical footing support below the facing, vertical toe loads were greater than those computed from facing self-weight alone due to down-drag forces developed at the facing–reinforcement connections as the wall facing moved outward. As vertical toe support stiffness decreased with respect to foundation compressibility below the soil backfill, the magnitude of soil down-drag forces diminished resulting in a decrease in vertical toe load. / Thesis (Master, Civil Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2007-10-27 12:15:56.027

A verified elasto-viscoplastic finite element model is used to develop a better understanding of the performance of embankments with geosynthetic reinforcement constructed over rate-sensitive soil. The interaction between reinforcement and prefabricated vertical drains (PVDs) and their effects on time-dependent behaviour of embankments are examined. For rate-sensitive soils, the generation of creep-induced pore pressures following the end of construction is evident along the potential slip surface. As a result, the minimum factor of safety with respect to embankment stability occurs after the end of construction. The combined use of reinforcement and PVDs are shown to provide an effective means of minimizing creep-induced excess pore pressure, increasing overall stability, and decreasing deformation of the embankments. The combined effects of the viscoelastic properties of geosynthetic reinforcement (polyester, polypropylene and polyethylene) and the rate-sensitive nature of foundation soils on the performance of embankments are examined. The effect of various factors, including reinforcement type (i.e., stiffness and viscosity), soil viscosity, construction rate and allowable long-term reinforcement strain, on the time-dependent behaviour of embankments are considered. The long-term performance of reinforced embankments is investigated for different maximum allowable long-term reinforcement strains. From a series of finite element analyses, the ideal allowable reinforcement strains to minimize embankment deformation while providing optimum long-term service height of the embankment, considering the effect of soil and reinforcement viscosity, are proposed for soils similar to those examined in this study. The currently proposed design methods for embankments with creep-susceptible reinforcement over rate-sensitive soils appear to be overly conservative. This study proposes a refined approach for establishing the allowable long-term reinforcement strains that are expected to provide adequate performance while reducing the level of conservativeness of reinforced embankment design. Finally, a previously developed elasto-viscoplastic constitutive model is modified to incorporate the effect of soil structure using a state-dependent fluidity parameter and damage law. The model was evaluated against data from a well-documented case study of a reinforced test embankment constructed on a sensitive Champlain clay deposit in Saint Alban, Quebec. The benefit of basal reinforcement and the effect of reinforcement viscosity are then discussed for these types of soil deposits. / Thesis (Ph.D, Civil Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2011-01-21 22:26:40.133

Current design guidelines for reinforced soil walls and slopes recommend the use of granular soils such as gravels and sands as select fills. Cost savings could potentially be realized by using on-site clays and silts. Some clays are swelling and silts are frost susceptible. When considering the use of swelling clays and frost susceptible silts as fills, environmental loading due to swelling-shrinkage and freeze-thaw effects from environmental changes could become a design issue. To examine the hypothesis that consideration of environmental loading during design will produce improvements in the performance of geosynthetic-reinforced soil structures that use clays or silts as fill materials, experimental and numerical studies were undertaken. Geosynthetic-reinforced clay specimens were subjected to wetting and drying in a model test apparatus developed and commissioned for this study. In separate test set-up, reinforced silt specimens were subjected to freezing and thawing. Tests on unreinforced specimens were also performed in otherwise identical conditions for comparison purposes. Movements of the specimens, soil strains, reinforcement strains, soil suctions and soil temperatures were monitored during the application of environmental loading in addition to mechanical loading from external stresses. The results of the laboratory model tests showed that reinforcements reduced horizontal displacements of the clay specimens during wetting and drying. The same is true for the case of silt during freezing and thawing. The environmental loading induced strains, and therefore stresses in the reinforcements. The measured geogrid strain during the wetting-drying of reinforced clay specimen was up to 0.75%. Similarly, the measured geogrid strain in the reinforced silt specimen during freezing-thawing cycles was up to 0.57%. The strains were greater than the strains generated by mechanical loading for the range of applied stresses used in this study. Numerical models were developed to simulate wetting only induced swelling of reinforced clays and freezing only induced expansion of reinforced silts specimens. They were used to simulate the results of laboratory model tests. The performance of geosynthetic-reinforced soil slopes with swelling clay fills and frost susceptible silt fills was evaluated. Parametric studies were performed to determine important parameters affecting the performance of reinforced clay and silt slopes.

Current design guidelines for reinforced soil walls and slopes recommend the use of granular soils such as gravels and sands as select fills. Cost savings could potentially be realized by using on-site clays and silts. Some clays are swelling and silts are frost susceptible. When considering the use of swelling clays and frost susceptible silts as fills, environmental loading due to swelling-shrinkage and freeze-thaw effects from environmental changes could become a design issue. To examine the hypothesis that consideration of environmental loading during design will produce improvements in the performance of geosynthetic-reinforced soil structures that use clays or silts as fill materials, experimental and numerical studies were undertaken. Geosynthetic-reinforced clay specimens were subjected to wetting and drying in a model test apparatus developed and commissioned for this study. In separate test set-up, reinforced silt specimens were subjected to freezing and thawing. Tests on unreinforced specimens were also performed in otherwise identical conditions for comparison purposes. Movements of the specimens, soil strains, reinforcement strains, soil suctions and soil temperatures were monitored during the application of environmental loading in addition to mechanical loading from external stresses. The results of the laboratory model tests showed that reinforcements reduced horizontal displacements of the clay specimens during wetting and drying. The same is true for the case of silt during freezing and thawing. The environmental loading induced strains, and therefore stresses in the reinforcements. The measured geogrid strain during the wetting-drying of reinforced clay specimen was up to 0.75%. Similarly, the measured geogrid strain in the reinforced silt specimen during freezing-thawing cycles was up to 0.57%. The strains were greater than the strains generated by mechanical loading for the range of applied stresses used in this study. Numerical models were developed to simulate wetting only induced swelling of reinforced clays and freezing only induced expansion of reinforced silts specimens. They were used to simulate the results of laboratory model tests. The performance of geosynthetic-reinforced soil slopes with swelling clay fills and frost susceptible silt fills was evaluated. Parametric studies were performed to determine important parameters affecting the performance of reinforced clay and silt slopes.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 280-294).

A geocélula foi desenvolvida, inicialmente, com o intuito de melhorar a capacidade de carga do solo. Contudo, este geossintético também é empregado para compor muro de arrimo de gravidade, como sistema de faceamento de estruturas reforçadas, como proteção de taludes contra erosão e como revestimento de canais. Na melhora da capacidade de carga de solos, a geocélula pode ser usada no reforço de fundações, de vias rodoviárias e ferroviárias, e em aterros sobre solos moles. Na literatura existem poucos modelos de previsão da capacidade de carga de solos reforçados com geocélulas, contudo, com limitações em sua aplicabilidade. Neste aspecto, o presente trabalho apresenta um novo método de previsão considerando os mecanismos de desenvolvimento da resistência tanto do solo de fundação como da geocélula, sendo estes os efeitos laje e do confinamento. Este novo método de cálculo é verificado com resultados de ensaios de placa de laboratório conduzidos por diversos autores e por simulações numéricas computacionais, sendo, também, comparado qualitativamente e quantitativamente com os demais métodos de cálculo. Os resultados indicaram que os valores calculados pelo presente modelo foram mais próximos daqueles obtidos pelos ensaios e pelas simulações, em comparação com os demais métodos. O presente modelo se adequou de forma satisfatória para diferentes características da geocélula (geometria e material de constituição), do solo de fundação e de preenchimento (diferentes tipos de areia e argila) e da geometria do carregamento (placas circular, retangular e corrida). Por fim, o método foi aplicado em reforço de fundações e de solos moles e verificado de forma satisfatória com o uso de modelos numéricos. / The geocell was initially designed to improve the soil bearing capacity. However, this geosynthetic also can be used as a retaining wall, facing for reinforced soil structures, slope protection against erosion and channel lining. In the soil bearing capacity improvement the geocell can be applied as reinforcement of foundation, soft soil embankments and roads and railroads. In the literature there are few methods for predicting bearing capacity of geocell-reinforced soil, however with disabilities that limit their applicability. In this regard, a new method for predicting the bearing capacity of geocell-reinforced soils is presented herein, taking into account the soil foundation resistance and the geocell reinforcement mechanisms, namely, stress dispersion effect and confinement effect. The present method is verified with the results of laboratory plate load experiments by several authors and numerical simulations, and compared with other calculation methods. The results indicated that the calculated results obtained from this method were very close to experimental and numerical results, better than other methods. This method also proved to be a good approach for different geocell characteristics (geometry and constitution material), for foundation soil and geocell infill (different types of sand and clay) and for loading shape (circular, rectangular and strip). In the last Chapter, the method has been applied in foundation and soft soil improvement and satisfactory verified by numerical simulations.

A fluência dos geossintéticos encontra-se entre as propriedades mais relevantes no projeto de estruturas de solo reforçado com esses materiais. A caracterização desse fenômeno emprega ensaios normalizados e de baixa complexidade, que apresentam dois aspectos negativos principais: a duração e o fato de não considerarem o efeito da interação dos geossintéticos com o solo circundante. Ensaios conduzidos em temperatura elevada e em câmaras que simulam o confinamento do solo apresentam-se como alternativas para solucionar cada um desses empecilhos, mas apenas separadamente. Diante disso, esta pesquisa visou desenvolver um novo equipamento para realização de ensaios de fluência em geossintéticos que incorpora, simultaneamente, ambas as medidas utilizadas para mitigar esses dois aspectos. Cinco tipos de geossintéticos (duas geogrelhas, dois geotêxteis não tecidos e um geotêxtil tecido) foram submetidos a ensaios de fluência em diferentes condições de confinamento e temperatura, de maneira combinada ou não. Ensaios de ruptura por fluência em condição confinada e a determinação da resistência à tração residual de corpos de prova submetidos à diferentes períodos de fluência também foram incluídos no programa experimental. O novo equipamento mostrou-se bastante versátil, permitindo a realização de quatro tipos de ensaios: convencionais, confinados, acelerados e confinado-acelerados. As deformações por fluência mostraram-se dependentes do confinamento nas geogrelhas e nos geotêxteis não tecidos e independentes no geotêxtil tecido. Assim, destaca-se que as geogrelhas tiveram um comportamento em fluência diferente daquele previsto na literatura técnica, uma vez que as deformações por fluência desses materiais são comumente referidas como independentes do confinamento. A elevação da temperatura de ensaio mostrou-se eficaz para a aceleração das deformações por fluência em todos os geossintéticos testados. Adicionalmente, verificou-se que a resistência residual dos geossintéticos é pouco afetada pela ocorrência de deformação por fluência. O novo equipamento para realização de ensaios de fluência em geossintéticos permite considerar um dos aspectos mais controversos no projeto de estruturas de reforço de solo com geossintéticos sob uma nova perspectiva. / Creep behavior plays an important role in geosynthetics reinforced soil structures. Its characterization is commonly performed by means of standard tests in which in-isolation specimens are subjected to a constant load while their elongation is measured over time. Despite their widespread use, standard creep tests present two main negative aspects. Firstly, they may last up to 10.000 hours. In addition, they do not consider the possibly significant effect of soil-geosynthetic interaction. Therefore, tests conducted under standard procedures may increase the costs of full creep behavior characterization and result in conservative parameters. Tests conducted at elevated temperature and with special chambers in which the specimens are subjected to confining stresses may be used provide an insight on the soil-geosynthetic interaction in accelerated tests. Both measures have been broadly published in the technical literature, but only independently. In this regard, this dissertation presents a new piece of equipment developed to conduct confined-accelerated creep tests on geosynthetics. Five different geosynthetics were subjected to creep tests with the new equipment (two geogrids, two nonwoven geotextiles and one woven geotextile). In addition, creep rupture tests were performed with both geogrids and the residual tensile strength of specimens were determined by tensile tests performed after creep tests in different conditions. The new creep test equipment was found to be able to performed four different types of test: conventional, confined, accelerated and confined-accelerated ones. The creep behavior of the geogrids was found to be confinement-dependent. This is not mentioned in technical literature. On the other hand, both types geotextiles behaved as expected regarding their confined creep behavior. The woven geotextile creep behavior was independent of confining stresses in sand whereas the nonwoven geotextile creep deformations were strongly reduced by confinement in sand. In addition, the creep deformations of every tested geosynthetic increased with temperature. The tensile tests performed after creep tests showed that the residual strength of the geosynthetics was approximately equal to the values found with virgin specimens. The new creep testing equipment performance was adequate, since it was able to simultaneously address both main concerns of standardized creep tests on geosynthetics.