Abstract:

The wall surface displacement growth and the stress change in the filling of gabion retaining wall during construction process are researched. Based on the theory of particle flow code (PFC), one of the discrete element methods, a series of numerical compression tests are simulated to establish the proper mechanical parameter values for filling, filling stone, gabion. The real gabion retaining wall being prototype, the model of gabion retaining wall of back ladder model is constituted. The mechanical behavior of retaining wall is studied during the uniform load acting on the surface of filling. The simulation results show that: (a)The sensibility of horizontal stress to uniform load decreases with the increase of depth in the filling; and the stress increases earlier and more in the lower filling depth. This is because that the upper layer filling consumes mostly energy of uniform load; and the lower layer filling absorbs a small quantity of energy when macro displacement occurs in the upper layer of the gabion retaining wall.(b) The most displacement of retaining wall occurs in the filling stage. Construction management of gabion retaining wall should be emphasized. (c) The displacement is comparatively large in the upper, lesser in the lower layers not only in the filling stage but also in the concentrated uniform load; from this, it can be seen that the destruction form for gabion retaining wall of back ladder is overturning. The results provide a foundation for studying the active earth pressure of this gabion retaining wall.

Key words: gabion retaining wall, particle flow code, horizontal stress, displacement value, destruction form