Influence Of The Area Of Lateral Pressure Plate On Unbonded Prestressed Soil Retaining Wall

Unbonded prestressed reinforced soil technology is used to enhance the integrity of the reinforced soil and reduce the deformation of the filler by applying active lateral restraint to the filler.The key to implement this technology is to establish the horizontal prestress on the filler.Because the prestress in the filler comes from the wall panel and the lateral pressure plate,the lateral pressure plate can affect the level and distribution of the prestress in the reinforced soil,and then influencing the mechanical properties of the retaining wall.As a result,this paper carried out four experimental cases to investigate the influence of area of the lateral pressure plate on the inner earth pressure and the deformation of the retaining wall of the unbonded prestressed reinforced soil,and the following results can be obtained:(1)When the filling is completed,The horizontal earth pressure behind the wall panel increases with increase of the area of the lateral pressure plate,but the horizontal earth pressure before the lateral pressure plate does not change much.After applying prestress to the tendons,the horizontal earth pressure at each measuring point in the reinforced zone is obviously increased.the increment of the horizontal earth pressure before lateral pressure plate decreases with increase of the area of lateral pressure plate,but the area of lateral pressure plate has no effect on the increment of the horizontal earth pressure behind the wall panel.After applying the surcharge load,the effect on the horizontal earth pressure is marginal.(2)When the filling is completed,The area of lateral pressure plate has slight influence on the horizontal earth pressure in the non-reinforced zone.After applying prestress to the tendons,The horizontal earth pressure at each measuring point in non-reinforced zone was obviously reduced,and the extent of reduction decreases with the increase of the area of lateral pressure plate.After applying the surcharge load,the horizontal earth pressure in the non-reinforced zone increases significantly,and the increment of the horizontal earth pressure decreases with the increase of the area of lateral pressure plate.(3)When the filling is completed,the horizontal displacement of the wall panel is increased from the top to the bottom along the height of the retaining wall,and decreases with the increase of the lateral pressure plate area;After applying prestress to the tendons,the top of the reinforcd zone appears to bulge while the top of thenon-reinforced zone appears to settle,and the bulge in the reinforced zone and the settlement in the non-reinforced zone both decrease with increasing the area of the lateral pressure plate.Under action of the surcharge load,the increment of the horizontal displacement of the wall panel,the bulge in the reinforced zone and the settlement in the non-reinforced zone are increased with increasing the area of the lateral pressure plate.(4)Compared with the non-prestressed case,the increment of horizontal displacement of the wall panel and the settlement in the non-reinforced zone of the prestressed case are smaller when subjected to surcharge load,which indicates that applying prestress to the tendons can improve the mechanical properties of reinforced soil,and the improvement is relevant to the horizontal pressure earth in the reinforced zone.