Geotechnical Stability of Gabion Walls
Chandr Toshan Rampat*, Abdulahi Ali Mohamed, Sandy Sien Ti Kok
- University of Nottingham, Jalan Broga, Selangor, Malaysia
Published in The First NZAAR International Event Series on Natural and Built Environment, Cities, Sustainability and Advanced Engineering, Putrajaya, Malaysia, 26 June 2016, pages 90 to 98. New Zealand Academy of Applied Research. ISSN 2463-5979 (online), 2463-5960 (print).
Abstract
The geotechnical stability of the Frontface and the Backface gabion retaining walls under different soil and loading conditions is compared based on the factor of safety achieved using different Eurocode 7 design approaches. The wall is treated as a single gravity entity and a parametric study is performed by varying its breadth-to-height ratio, degree of inclination, surcharge, and soil parameters, which include unit weight and internal friction angle. Factors that significantly influence the geotechnical stability at the Ultimate Limit State (GEO) were found to be the internal friction angle of the backfill and the breadth-to-height ratio of the wall. The eccentricity of the Frontface gabion wall renders it more effective, in terms of the factor of safety achieved with respect to the number of gabion baskets used. At small breadth-to-height ratio, the failure criterion is overturning and at large values of this ratio, the structure is more prone to sliding failure. The choice of a sufficiently conservative design approach therefore depends on the design loads and design material properties involved.
Keywords: Design Approach; Eurocode 7; Gabions; Gravity wall; Limit State
Rights
Copyright © New Zealand Academy of Applied Research Ltd 2016. All rights reserved. Reproduced in the GDI Academy archive from the original proceedings without change to the authors’ text.