Constitutive modelling of a reinforced soil using hierarchical model

Drained triaxial tests are conducted on natural and reinforced sand under v arious stress paths. Direct shear tests and pull-out tests are conducted on soil-reinforcement interface and on reinforcement, respectively. The effec ts of two types of reinforcement, viz, woven and non-woven geotextile and n umber of layers of reinforcement are investigated. Hierarchical single surf ace model is used to depict the behaviour of natural and reinforced soil by treating the soil as a single composite material and by considering soil, reinforcement and interface as independent elements. It is shown that the m aterial parameters are very much affected by the type and the number of lay ers of reinforcement. The hierarchical model provides satisfactory predicti on for both natural and reinforced soil. Copyright (C) 1999 John Wiley & So ns, Ltd.