Recent developments in limit analysis and limit state design of reinforced soil (Belgium)
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In this conference two powerful techniques which have recently become available to geotechnical engineers involved in the design of conventional and reinforced soil constructions will be described:
Safety Map (SM) Tool for Reinforced Slopes and Walls
In the first presentation Prof. Dov Leshchinsky will describe how the diagnostic Safety Map (SM) tool can be used to design reinforced slopes and walls. The objective of such design is to produce economical layout and strength of reinforcement. Such problems often have multiple weak zones, complex geometry and soil strata, and are subjected to porewater pressure distributions, surcharge and seismic loadings. Through realistic example problems it is demonstrated how the SM can quickly assist in identifying an efficient reinforcement layout that meet the design requirements. It is shown that the SM does not require additional computational efforts; rather, it utilizes an existing data generated in stability analysis that otherwise is discarded.
Discontinuity Layout Optimization (DLO) limit analysis
In the second presentation Drs. Colin Smith and Matthew Gilbert will describe how the recently developed Discontinuity Layout Optimization (DLO) limit analysis procedure can bridge the gap between simple hand-based analysis methods and much more complex incremental techniques (e.g. based on non-linear finite elements), providing an easy to use general purpose geotechnical analysis tool that may be directly applied in ultimate limit state design. A DLO-based software application, LimitState:GEO, has been developed for use in industry and academia, and has been available since 2008. In the presentation the underlying technology will be briefly explained and the broad scope of the DLO procedure illustrated through the analysis of a variety of geotechnical problems including foundations, retaining walls and slopes. Finally, the modelling of soil reinforcement will be examined through a study of reinforced earth wall stability, with comparisons made with the tie-back method often used in practice.