Modelling a geo-composite cell using discrete analysis
Résumé
Reinforced soil structures can be used to protect infrastructures against rockfalls. An innovative way to implement such protection is to construct the front face using a cellular assembly. This paper focuses on the cellular scale, with the cell a complex heterogeneous material, composed of a wire netting box filled with rocky particles. The behaviour of a single cell was modelled using the discrete element method, thus accounting for the interaction between the rocky particles and the interaction between the box and the rocky particles. A constitutive model was developed and calibrated along confined compression loading paths, then preliminary elements of validation were obtained from the simulation of unconfined compression tests.