5th Geotechnical Symposium, Adana, Turkey, 5 - 07 December 2013, pp.1-10
Because of the ability to take into account nonlinear behavior, construction steps and soilstructure interaction, designs based on numerical analysis methods are likely to be more
economical and safer. However, the need to use two-dımensional (2D) models in
numerical analyses for practical reasons limits realistic solutions. Inability to model nailsoil interaction properly plays an important role. In a plane-strain idealızation nail elements
are modeled as a thin plate. In this case, to obtain realistic deformations the rigidity of nail
elements are reduced; however, it becomes difficult to model realistic soil-structure
interaction. To avoid this problem, embedded beam or pile elements have been developed.
In the embedded pile element approach, piles or other elements embedded in the soil (i.e.,
nail, tie-backs etc.) are modeled with their load capacity and incorporating soil-structure
interaction. This study aims at numerical modeling of soil nails using embedded pile
elements. For this purpose, a full-scale model experiment reported in Clouterre 1986
(Unterriener ve Benhamda, 1995) is modeled using Plaxıs 2D 2012(Brinkgreve,2012)
program and the numerical results are compared with the experimental results. These
comparisons indicate that use of embedded pile elements can be used for a realistic
analysis of soil nails.