Two-dimensional analysis of reinforced-soil metal arches under shallow cover conditions

To study the possibility of building soil-metal arches under very shallow depth of soil cover, shallower than the minimum allowed by the various codes, special structure features need to be used. In this paper, the reinforced soil system is used for building these structures under shallow cover conditions. Three laboratory test models are built and tested to compare between the structural behavior of the structures with and without the proposed reinforcement. The results from the test models are used to verify and substantiate two -dimensional finite element model developed for future use in analyzing full scale model.