Effects of Backfill Constitutive Behavior and Soil-Geotextile Interface Properties on Deformations of Geosynthetic-Reinforced Soil Piers under Static Axial Loading

In this research, a numerical investigation was conducted to study the effects of backfill constitutive behavior on the vertical and horizontal deformations of geosynthetic-reinforced soil (GRS) piers under static axial loads. A finite-difference program was used to model full-scale GRS piers. The backfill soil was simulated using three constitutive models: the elastic-perfectly-plastic Mohr-Coulomb model, the plastic-hardening model, and the plastic-hardening model combined with strain-softening behavior. The results showed that the deformation response of GRS piers under service loads is satisfactorily predicted by the plastic-hardening model. At ultimate failure loads, however, only the model accounting for the plastic-hardening and the strain-softening behaviors was judged to reasonably capture the behavior of GRS piers. The relative displacement of soil and geotextile at the soil-geotextile interface was also investigated. The results showed that under working conditions with small applied load, there is no sliding between the soil and geotextile; however, as the load increases, sliding is first initiated at the corners of the pier and progressively mobilized toward the center of the pier. A parametric study on the effects of soil-geotextile interface properties on the deformation behavior of GRS piers under axial loading was also conducted using the validated plastic-hardening model combined with strain-softening behavior. It was found that increasing the interface friction angle decreases the settlement of GRS piers when the axial strain is greater than 2% for piers with a concrete masonry unit (CMU) facing and 4% for piers without CMU facing. The results suggest that when calibrating the interface friction angle (or cohesion), the postyielding response of GRS pier should be used.