ORCID Identifier(s)

0000-0001-9344-8039

Graduation Semester and Year

2021

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Civil Engineering

Department

Civil Engineering

First Advisor

Nur Yazdani

Abstract

Cast-In-Place (CIP) concrete retaining walls have been used in the United States widely in the 20th century. CIP concrete walls have additionally proven to be structurally rigid and cost-effective for low backfill height. This type of wall is also sustainable with design service life of 75 years (TxDOT 2014). However, during service, the wall undergoes distressed movements, structural deficiency, and stability related problems. CIP cantilever concrete retaining walls often do not perform as expected, and the walls are affected by construction and/or structural deficiency, which sometimes leads to failure. The current study was inspired by distressed CIP walls located on IH-20 in Fort Worth, Texas. The wall shows out-of-plane movement, wall cracks, wall leakage, detached joints, exposed steel dowel in the joints, and blockage of weeping holes. The main focus of this research is to 1) periodically monitor the wall movement; 2) assess the effect of CIP wall movement on overall wall stability; 3) perform several field and lab tests on the concrete wall and the backfill soil material to check the integrity of the concrete and backfill soil; 4) check the design and stability analysis of the CIP wall; 5) develop a 3D Finite Element Modeling (FEM) by using ABAQUS software to predict the actual behavior of a CIP wall and investigate the wall critical criteria; and 6) recommend retrofitting measures to rehabilitate the wall. Several non-destructive tests were performed on the CIP wall. A 3D robotic laser scanner was used to monitor the movement of the wall panels. Furthermore, a subsurface investigation was conducted using the Resistivity Imaging (RI) technique to investigate the presence of a groundwater table or accumulated water zones. Then, based on structural design, stability analysis, and numerical model, several retrofitting options, such as steel tie-back, soil nailing, FRP post-tensioning, Deadman, helical, pile and helical anchor, and hybrid concrete pile and soil nailing, have been proposed to stabilize the wall.

Keywords

CIP retaining walls, Distresses, Modeling, Retrofitting options

Disciplines

Civil and Environmental Engineering | Civil Engineering | Engineering

Comments

Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington

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