Numerical analysis of a mechanically stabilized earth wall reinforced with steel strips

A mechanically stabilized earth wall with steel strip soil reinforcement was built and instrumented by the Public Works Research Institute of Japan. Measured reinforcement loads and vertical toe loads are compared to values predicted using the finite difference program FLAC. Backfill and foundation soil properties were not reported in the original case study. A novel relative error technique was used to select the best estimates of the single-value elastic modulus for both soils. The relative errors were computed from the calculated and measured values of the tensile load in the steel strips and the vertical toe load at the end of the wall construction. Minimum relative errors were visually detectable in the contour plots of the weighted relative errors, and these minima were used to select the elastic moduli of the baseline backfill soil and the foundation soil. The baseline values were shown to yield predicted tensile and vertical toe loads that are judged to be in good agreement with the measured data. Parametric analyses were carried out to examine the quantitative influence on the computed reinforcement loads and the vertical toe load of the various soil modulus, interface shear stiffness and interface friction angles around the baseline values.