Statistical analysis of the resistance of the soil-geosynthetic interfaces and its influence in the estimation of internal failure probability of reinforced soil walls

• Grant number: 16/17015-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: May 21, 2017
• End date: August 20, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Civil Engineering - Geotechnical Engineering
• Principal Investigator: Jefferson Lins da Silva
• Grantee: Jefferson Lins da Silva
• Host Investigator: Maria de Lurdes da Costa Lopes
• Host Institution: Escola de Engenharia de São Carlos (EESC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Universidade do Porto (UP), Portugal

Abstract

This project, with estimated duration of three months, to be held at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, FEUP (Porto, Portugal), falls within a research line in the scope of Geotechnical reliability, introduced by the proponent since 2013. The project aims to continue the development of research that employs procedures to estimate the probability of failure of reinforced soil structures with geosynthetics from numerical simulations and mathematical optimization processes. The main aim of this post-doctoral project is to analyze the statistical behavior of the resistance of the soil-geosynthetic interfaces and its influence in the estimation of internal failure probability of reinforced soil walls. Initially, will be analyzed different statistical distributions whose domain are the strength parameters of soil-geosynthetic interfaces obtained from the set of results of tests of direct shear, inclined plane and monotonic and cycle pullout, especially considering the database of Geosynthetic Laboratories of the USP and of the FEUP. Additionally, it will estimate the probability of failure internal of reinforced soil walls with geosynthetics by two approaches: the first with the use of limit state equations through the First Order Reliability Method (FORM) and the second with the simulation Monte Carlo from numerical simulations in the commercial program GeoStudio 2012, which the proponent has use licence since 2014. It is expected to bring academics benefits, providing references for future applications, especially in terms of safety verification of reinforced soil walls.