NUMERICAL-ANALYSIS OF THE RESPONSE OF REINFORCED SOILS TO DIRECT SHEARING .2.

A soil-reinforcement load transfer model was developed by the authors to simulate the response of the reinforced soil material to triaxial compression and direct shearing. This paper presents the application of the proposed model for the numerical analysis of direct shear tests on sand samples reinforced with different types of tension resisting reinforcements. A parametric study is conducted to evaluate the effect of the mechanical characteristics and dilatancy properties of the soil, extensibility (elastic modulus) of the reinforcements, and their inclination with respect to the failure surface on the response of the reinforced soil material to direct shearing. An attempt is made to verify the proposed model by comparing numerical test simulations with experimental results.