DEVELOPMENT OF RIGID PLASTIC STABILITY ANALYSIS FOR CLAYEY GROUND REINFORCED BY SHEET-LIKE REINFORCEMENT

Abstract

Rigid plastic finite element method (RPFEM) is one of the versatile numerical tools to solve bearing capacity problems. A hybrid-type RPFEM has been developed by the authors, which directly searches both the stress and velocity field at the ultimate limit state. In this article, clay ground reinforcement with a sheet-like member is modeled and implemented into the RPFEM. The proposed model includes the effects of strength of sheet-like members and shear interaction between the members and surrounding soils. Formulation of the model is explained in details and results of numerical experiments are presented to demonstrate its performance.