Crash Wall Design for Mechanically Stabilized Earth Retaining Wall — Center for Transportation Computational Mechanics

This study was undertaken to evaluate the performance of a crash wall design installed in front of mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) wall panels due to vehicular impact. In order to evaluate the crash wall design on the MSE wall, detailed finite element models were developed for the MSE wall and for the protective crash wall. The analysis results showed that the wall panels exhibited considerable damage due to the direct vehicular impact. This proves that the wall panels alone cannot resist the direct impact of such severity. However, once a 0.2 m (8 in.) thick crash wall is used, it shown that damage to the wall panels significantly reduced.

simulation of a direct impact to a mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) retaining wall and to a crash wall installed in front of an MSE wall

Direct Impact Case (left) and Crash Wall Impact Case (right)

Reference

Abu-Odeh, A., Kim, K.-M., Williams, F.W., and Patten, C., “Crash Wall Design for Mechanically Stabilized Earth (MSE) Retaining Wall Phase I: Engineering Analysis and Simulation“, TTI Report 405160-15, Texas A&M Transportation Institute, College Station, October 2010.