CONSTRUCTION TECHNOLOGY AND NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF RIVERBANK RETAINING WALLS USING PLAXIS 2D

Abstract

Ensuring reliable protection of river banks is particularly important in urbanised areas with complex engineering and geological conditions. This paper discusses construction technologies and performs a numerical analysis of the reliability of a retaining wall for coastal reinforcement on a pile foundation using the Plaxis 2D software package. The study is based on a combination of deterministic finite element modelling and probabilistic reliability assessment to analyse the stress-strain state of retaining walls under the combined action of soil and water loads. The numerical model takes into account the actual stages of construction, the layer-by-layer structure of the soil massif and the hydrostatic pressure of water, which allows the calculated conditions to be brought as close as possible to the operating conditions. According to engineering and geological surveys, layers of sandy loam and loam were identified, which are modelled using the Mohr–Coulomb elastic-plastic model. The simulation results showed that the maximum horizontal displacement of the retaining wall under combined loading does not exceed 2.0 cm, and the total deformations of the soil-structure system are within acceptable operational values. Probabilistic analysis using the Utkin method showed a reliability coefficient exceeding the recommended values for urban retaining structures. The results confirm that retaining walls on pile foundations, designed using modern numerical and probabilistic methods, are a technically reliable and cost-effective solution for strengthening river banks in conditions of weak soils and changing hydrological conditions.