Static and seismic numerical modeling of geosynthetic-reinforced soil segmental bridge abutments

Abstract

This paper presents numerical modeling verification of a block-faced geogrid-reinforced soil bridge abutment (‘segmental bridge abutment’), subjected to construction-induced loads and seismic loads. The static response of the well-instrumented Founders/Meadow segmental bridge abutment, near Denver, USA, during different stages of construction and in-service behavior, and also the static/seismic response of a carefully instrumented reduced-scale reinforced soil-retaining wall tested on a shaking table at the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC), have been used for numerical modeling verification purposes. A 2-D, explicit dynamic finite difference program was used to perform the analyses, with user-defined static/seismic constitutive models. The comparisons between the predicted results from the numerical models and the measured physical results from instrumented prototypes were judged to show good agreement for vertical and horizontal displacements, reinforcement forces, and vertical/horizontal soil pressures. The lessons learned to model the physical structures were used to investigate the seismic response of the Founders/Meadow segmental bridge abutment.