Effect of Soil Constitutive Models on Numerical Modeling of Cantilever Retaining Wall

Abstract

In the present study static response of cantilever retaining walls have been investigated by consideration of various soil constitutive models by means of finite element method with using PLAXIS 2-D software. Simulations have been performed at heights of 3, 6, and 9 meters retaining walls with considering two types of soils (cohesive and cohesionless) as backfill material. In this study, analysis have been conducted for two kinds of cohesionless backfill (loose and dense sand in dry condition) and at both conditions, saturated and unsaturated, for cohesive backfill. Analysis have been carried out by using three constitutive behavioral methods: Mohr-Coulomb (MC), Hardening-Soil (HS) and Hardening soil model with Small-Strain stiffness (HSS) for cohesionless backfill and additional method, Soft Soil model (SS), for cohesive backfill. The results show that, for cohesionless and cohesive backfill materials the lateral forces acting on the retaining wall are underestimated by the MC and SS constitutive models, respectively.

Keywords

• Numerical modeling
• Cantilever Retaining Wall
• Soil Constitutive Model