9603033 Leshchinsky This award supports a two year collaborative research project between Professors Dov Leshchinsky and Hoe Ling of the University of Delaware and Professors Jiro Takemura and Tsutomu Kimura of the Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan. This research project will undertake a study of the long-term performance of geosynthetically reinforced walls and implications of creep and stress relaxation on design. The problem of time-dependent response of geosynthetically reinforced soil structures requires study from the standpoint of fundamental mechanics and current design procedures, for future applications. The major goals are: 1) to experimentally study stress relaxation of selected geosynthetic reinforcement; 2) develop a simple constitutive model to realistically simulate the time dependent behavior of the reinforcement; 3) implement this model into an existing finite element computer code; and 4) conduct an extensive numerical parametric study of geosynthetically reinforced walls at working stress conditions. The proposal brings together two laboratories that have constituted different parts of the process: the Americans will be responsible for conducting the analytical parts of the research and the Japanese will be conducting the centrifuge tests. The results of the research will facilitate the understanding of time dependent behavior of geosynthetic reinforcement interactive with backfill soil and will make the design of such structures more rational. Through the exchange of ideas and technology, this project will broaden our base of knowledge and promote international understanding and cooperation. ***
