Experiments and DEM analysis on vibration reduction of soilbags

Abstract

Soilbags have been widely used to reinforce foundations since they effectively reduce vibrations. The vibration reduction effects of soilbags were illustrated through vertical excitations and the discrete element method (DEM) from two different perspectives. The frequency response and theoretical analyses of the wave propagation were used with excitations from a macroscopic perspective. The results show that the attenuation of vibrations using soilbags can be greatly reduced. The DEM simulations for a single soilbag were performed from the microscale perspective. The results revealed that the energy transfer and dissipation within a particulate system can be well captured, and the calculated energy obeyed the law of energy conservation. Under different loading rates, the percentage of energy dissipation exhibited wavy fluctuations with loading and unloading. The percentage of total energy dissipation was more than 70%, which also effectively proved that soilbags have good damping effects.