Elasto-plastic analysis of reinforced soils using mesh-free method

In this paper the application of the mesh-free method (MFM) for the elasto-plastic analysis of reinforced soils is studied for the first time. The applied mesh-free method is called the radial point interpolation method (RPIM). In MFM, unlike the finite element method (FEM), there is no need of mesh in the traditional sense, and the shape functions are based on nodes. In the present study the reinforced soil is divided into three separate parts of soil, reinforcements, and interface layers. The displacement field in each part is constructed by RPIM. The final system of equations is derived by the substitution of the displacement field into the weak form of the governing equation. The elasto-plastic behaviors of soil, reinforcements, and interface layers are considered. There is also the ability of slippage modeling between the soil and reinforcement. Based on the derived equations a computer code has been developed and its validity investigated by solving some examples at the end of the paper.