CASE STUDY ON SEVERELY-DAMAGED REINFORCED EARTH WALL WITH GEO-TEXTILE IN HYOGO, JAPAN Part II: Numerical simulation into causes and countermeasures

Numerical analysis was carried out in order to simulate the development of the large deformation that took place on the reinforced earth wall, a part of the Tottori expressway planned to pass Hyogo, Japan. Since this reinforced earth wall had experienced unexpected deformation of the wall during construction, the wall was re-constructed twice. However, the wall deformation showed no sign to cease even at the final stage of the construction. Countermeasures to re-stabilize the wall were demanded. In part I of this paper, it was manifested that subsidence of a 3-meter weak soil due to seepage flow was responsible for the large deformation. A part of concrete panel wall was severely damaged due to extremely large pulling force of geotextile induced by the hammock state. As for the countermeasures, "grouting with slag system" was applied to fill voids of the backfill, and also to prevent further development of settlement in the weak soil layer. "Ground anchor" was also considered to achieve the prescribed factor of safety.