Acta Univ. Agric. Silvic. Mendelianae Brun. 2016, 64(4), 1131-1138 | DOI: 10.11118/actaun201664041131

Finite Element Limit Analysis of Active Earth Pressure in Nonhomogeneous soils

Peyman Hamidi, Tohid Akhlaghi, Masoud Hajialilou Bonab

Department of Engineering, Faculty of Civil Engineering, University of Tabriz, Iran

Limit analysis is a useful method to calc1ulate bearing capacity of footings, earth pressure of retaining walls, stability of slopes and excavations. In recent years, many efforts have been focused on stability problems of geotechnical structures with the limit analysis method. The limit analysis method includes the upper and lower bound theorems. By using the two theorems, the range, in which the true solution falls, can be found.
In this paper upper bound finite element limit analysis is used for calculate active earth force on retaining walls in non-homogeneous soils. Elements with linear strain rates cause to eliminate the necessity of velocity discontinuities between the elements. Nonlinear programming based on second order cone programming (SOCP) ,which has good conformity with Mohr-Coulomb criterion used in this paper. The sensitivity of active earth force against backfill surcharge (q), soil layers cohesion (Ci), soil layers unit weight (γ_i) and friction angle between soil and wall (δ_i) is surveyed.

Keywords: nonhomogeneous soil, upper bound, finite element, optimization, nonlinear programming, retaining wall, limit analysis

Prepublished online: August 30, 2016; Published: September 1, 2016  Show citation