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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Mater.
Sec. Computational Materials Science
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmats.2024.1454201

Evaluation of design parameters for Geosynthetic Reinforced-Soil Integrated Bridge System based on Finite element analysis

Provisionally accepted
Mahrukh Khan Mahrukh Khan 1Muhammad Umar Muhammad Umar 1Mehtab Alam Mehtab Alam 2,3*Syed U. Naqvi Syed U. Naqvi 4Nikolai Ivanovich Vatin Nikolai Ivanovich Vatin 5Hamad Almujibah Hamad Almujibah 6
  • 1 Department of Civil Engineering, National University of Computer and Emerging sciences, FAST, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
  • 2 Tongji University, Shanghai, China
  • 3 Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology, Topi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
  • 4 King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran, Ash Sharqiyah, Saudi Arabia
  • 5 Peter the Great St.Petersburg Polytechnic University, Saint Petersburg, Saint Petersburg, Russia
  • 6 College of Engineering, Taif University, Ta'if, Saudi Arabia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This study evaluates the performance of a geosynthetic reinforced soil integrated bridge system (GRS-IBS) in terms of total displacement by varying different design parameters simultaneously and also suggests optimum values of them. These parameters include, i. backfill internal friction angle (∅ b ) and reinforcement spacing (Sv), ii. Backfill internal friction angle (∅ b ) and geogrid axial stiffness (EA) at varying reinforcement spacing (Sv), iii. Backfill internal friction angle (∅ b )and number of bearing bed layers, and the effect of retained backfill slope (mb). Simulations were conducted using PLAXIS 2D software. Analysis showed that the cumulative effect of these parameters had a significant effect on total displacement but after a certain point increase or decrease in their values showed no effect on the results while some parameters showed negligible effect on the deformation of the wall. Furthermore, due to the notable effect of ∅ b , Sv and EA on the total displacement of the wall, the impact of these parameters was also investigated on the development of tensile force in the topmost layer of geogrid in GRS IBS. It was noted that the shape of the tensile force distribution graph was the same for all the cases and the order of the parameters in terms of their effect on tensile force was Sv>∅ b > EA. Also, a detailed analysis of tensile force development in all the layers of geogrids showed that if S v ≤ 0.2m, the spacing between reinforcement in the lower portion of GRS IBS can be increased as these layers showed approximately zero tensile load.

    Keywords: Geosynthetic reinforced soil integrated bridge system GRS-IBS, Finite Element Analysis, parametric study, Tensile forces, optimum parameters

    Received: 24 Jun 2024; Accepted: 06 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Khan, Umar, Alam, Naqvi, Vatin and Almujibah. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Mehtab Alam, Tongji University, Shanghai, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.