A Numerical Study on Localized Deformation Pattern in Granular Soil behind Retaining Wall

The present paper investigates the development of shear localization inside granular soil supported by a retaining wall under active movement. Micro-polar (Cosserat) continuum approach is utilized to overcome the numerical difficulties of localization modeling encountered in the classical continuum mechanics. For description of the mechanical properties of granular soil, the Lade’s single hardening constitutive model enhanced by polar terms is used which takes into account particle rotations, micro-curvatures, non-symmetric shear stresses, couple stresses and internal length. The attention is paid to the influence of different modes of wall movement on the pattern of shear localization developed inside granular body behind the wall. The FE results are compared with analytical solutions and experimental observations. It is shown that the obtained numerical predictions provide reasonable qualitative agreement with the corresponding laboratory model tests. However, there are substantial differences between FE results and analytical solutions.

Keywords:

Retaining wall , shear localization , micro-polar (Cosserat) continuum , internallength , granular soil