Study of soil nailed wall under service loading condition

The technique of soil nailing as a method of soil reinforcement in situ has been increasingly used to stabilise steep slopes in open excavations over the last three decades. Wall deformations need to be limited to the allowable deformation during the design of soil nailed walls, especially when buildings or other underground facilities exist near the excavation. In this paper, to predict the wall deformation, a three-dimensional finite-difference model is verified by comparing the model results from an experimental wall and a numerical analysis from a wall in the literature. The numerical method is then used to investigate soil nailed wall behaviour under service loading conditions in terms of surface settlement, nail forces and the soil strain field. The behaviour is investigated to study the influence of: (a) the shear strength of the soil; (b) the distribution of nail lengths; (c) the vertical spacing of the nails; and (d) the elasticity modulus of the nails. The results could be useful for the design of soil nailed structures.