Development of resilient reinforced soil walls against future climate changes using geosynthetics

Abstract

Results of recent investigations suggest that climate change tends to exacerbate geo-disasters. Therefore, it is understood that adaptation to climate change has rapidly become the most important and urgent issue for the future existence of human beings on Earth. Adaptation of design analyses and construction recommendation involves a significant contribution specifically in the resilience of infrastructure to extreme climate disasters such as typhons, flooding, and drought. This research proposal aims to evaluate the performance of geosynthetic-reinforced walls against extreme future climate events. Technologies involving the use of draining geocomposites reinforcements to avoid pore water pressures developments inside the reinforced zone, waterproof membranes to restrict wetting advancement into the reinforced zone, and types of facing will be tested in a search of more resilient structures against extreme climate conditions. The experimental program is based on the use of 1-g physical models scaled to 1/6 to be constructed inside a climatic chamber. This test chamber will allow to simulate climate effects such as rainfalls, drying and storms. A numerical model will also be developed to further study the effect of rainfall on the stability of geosynthetic reinforced soil (GRS). The numerical investigation will involve the stress-pore pressure coupled finite element formulation that can consider the transient infiltration of rainfall within the framework of unsaturated shear strength. The results of analyses will be systematically analyzed and presented so that the governing mechanism of the effect of rainfall on the geosynthetic reinforced soil wall stability can be identified. (AU)