ABSTRACT
Compared with rigid retaining systems, Mechanically Stabilized Earth (MSE) walls offer various advantages, such as their cost competitiveness and a higher tolerance for deformations under earthquake loads. Accordingly, MSE walls have become widely popular in the last decades and a thorough understanding of their static and seismic behavior is required for advances in design. In this study, the effect of reinforcement stiffness on the static and seismic response of an MSE wall was investigated by performing two-dimensional finite element analyses. The MSE wall models were excited with a harmonic loading with a frequency content of 4 Hz. In the analysis, geogrids were modeled with two axial reinforcement stiffness values: 600 kN/m and 1200 kN/m. Relative horizontal displacements along the wall height, displacement along the reinforcements, and tensile loads in the geogrids were investigated. The results indicated that the effect of reinforcement stiffness on the MSE wall displacements was less pronounced in the static condition compared with the seismic condition. MSE wall displacements were more visible at about mid-height of the wall in the static case. In the seismic case, the increase in reinforcement stiffness caused a horizontal displacement reduction along the wall height. Doubling the axial reinforcement stiffness increase caused a visible increase in the reinforcement axial forces, in the mid to lower reinforcement levels in the seismic case.
