“Computational Civil Engineering 2007”, International Symposium

Iaşi, România, May 25, 2007

Design of reinforced soil works – Textomur structures – based on

the computer program Cartage
Anghel Stanciu1, Oana Colţ 2 and Irina Lungu3
1Department of Roads and Foundations, Technical University, Iasi, 700050, Romania
2Department of Roads and Foundations, Technical University, Iasi, 700050, Romania
3Department of Roads and Foundations, Technical University, Iasi, 700050, Romania

Summary

Reinforced soil represents an alternative solution to consolidate earth massifs and

perform retaining structures included in the present transportation infrastructure.
One of the advantages consists in applying this type of structure in poor foundation
soil conditions, due to the fact that the induced pressures are small and uniformly
distributed. Construction costs may also be decreased by using the local material
from the construction site as filling material within the reinforced soil work.
Finally, the resulted platform may also be support for additional construction
works.
Regarding the construction method, the variety of the reinforcements (steel,
geosynthetics, geogrids) or of the facing elements (precast concrete blocks, steel
structures, reversed geogrids or geosynthetics) allows various performing
procedures to develop when building reinforced soil structures.
Textomur system is included in the category of reinforced soil with geosynthetics,
developed mainly in France. The main difference between this system and other
reinforcing techniques consists in building up the facing element, by using
prefabricated steel elements.
The design of the reinforced soil works in Textomur system is implemented via a
computer program – Cartage. This program was initiated in 1985 LCPC
(Laboratoire Central du Ponts et Chaussée), France and it is based on the
analytical calculation method developed also at LCPC, considering the limit
equilibrium.
By running this computer program stresses within the reinforcements can be
evaluated, the displacements of the soil massive, and the safety coefficients at
anchorage as well, based on the stability analysis of the massive in case of
cylindrical failure surfaces going through the toe of the reinforced soil structure.

KEYWORDS: reinforced soil, retaining structures, geosynthetics, Textomur,

Cartage.
2 A. Stanciu, O. Colţ, I. Lungu

1. INTRODUCTION

The first modern system of soil reinforcing was initiated and developed in the mid
‘60s by the French engineer Henri Vidal, with the name Terre Armeé (reinforced
soil), using steel reinforcements. Beginning with 1970, geosynthetics have been
created as an alternative of the steel reinforcements. The acceptance of
geosynthetics in reinforced soil construction has been triggered by a number of
factors, including aesthetics, reliability, cost, simple construction techniques, good
seismic performance, and the ability to tolerate large deformations without
structural distress.
In Romania, the first attempts of performing retaining walls by reinforced soil were
made in 1973...1974, when such a construction work was designed and built over
50m length. After 1990 many retaining walls have been performed as soil
reinforced with geotextiles and geogrids within road rehabilitation works.
Textomur system is included in the category of reinforced soil with geosynthetics,
developed mainly in France. The main difference between this system and other
reinforcing techniques consists in building up the facing element, by using
prefabricated steel elements.

2. TEXTOMUR REINFORCING SYSTEM

Textomur is essentially a reinforcing technique of soil using geogrids or

geotextiles. There are many variants of the Textomur system and the name
corresponds to Textomur system with mineral, vegetal, or neutral facing elements.
The facing elements of Textomur have a length of 4.75m the steel within has a
diameter of 6 and 8mm. For the Textomur system with mineral facing the
formworks are galvanized after welding and bending at the appropriate angle. The
height of one layer is 60-65cm, being variable depending on the requirements of
the project. The slope of the formwork may vary between 40° to 90°. The
reinforcement length is established for each project but an initial 0.7 of the total
height is recommended.

2.1. Advantages
• Local material from the construction site may be used as filling material.
• Flexibility – curves, edges, terraces of variable length may be performed.
• Long lasting life – the life span is estimated for approximately 120 years.
• Easy to built, without a foundation.
• Construction may be performed without additional bracing.
“Computational Civil Engineering 2007”, International Symposium 3

2.2. Textomur with mineral facing

Textomur with mineral facing includes galvanized welded steel facing elements
behind which large boulders of 30-100cm are manually placed over a width of
30cm and along the entire height of the facing (figure 1). The boulders are
preferred to be with plan surfaces and consequently the arrangement will display
less voids.

Figure 1. Cross section of a Textomur system with mineral facing

This type of Textomur is best applied for retaining structures (figure 2), the ensure
slope stability, for significant height, reinforced soil works in steps can be
performed, with an aesthetic role as well.

Figure 2. Retaining wall of Textomur with vertical mineral facing

4 A. Stanciu, O. Colţ, I. Lungu

3. COMPUTER PROGRAM - CARTAGE

The computer program Cartage is based on the LCPC calculation method of the
reinforced soil [1], [2], considering the limit equilibrium of the massive. Slope
stability is analyzed based on circular failure surfaces through the toe of the
massive. The program computes the stresses within reinforcements, considering
each failure surface. The safety coefficient for internal stability is set as 1.5. The
maximum stress in each reinforcement resulted from the program is considered the
service stress for the corresponding failure surface. The calculation continues until
the safety requirements are met, altering the reinforcing scheme or the
reinforcement type.

3.1. Calculation method of L.C.P.C.

The method is based on Rankine’s theory to compute the active earth pressure on
the retaining element (figure 3). The soil layer horizontally placed between the i-1
and i reinforcements is considered to establish the tension force within the
reinforcement [3], [4]. Regarding the main stress as the vertical one (  v    H ),
the tension force in the i reinforcement would counteract the active earth pressure
acting on the facing of height H .

H
v=H
ha v i-1
i
a vH

H

Figure 3. Principle of L.C.P.C. method

Consequently the tension force is given by:

 K a    H 
1
Ti    H  K a  H 
2
(1)
2
but H  i  H and thus the final relationship is the following:
 1
Ti  1    K a    H 2 (2)
 2
“Computational Civil Engineering 2007”, International Symposium 5

3.2. Design hypotheses

The stability analysis is performed considering the simultaneous action of several

pessimistic factors the highest height, a horizontal platform at the top, the service
load as close as possible towards the facing, and ignoring the presence of the
material in front of the reinforced structure toe.
A case study is presented as a retaining wall on the road RN 94, Embrun, France.
The less favourable case is adopted in the design profile (figure 4), height of 5,40m
corresponding to 9 levels of Textomur formwork, with an inclination of 270 [5].
The presence of soil over the first formwork height was disregarded.

Figure 4. Design profile for Cartage, considering one potential failure surface

The geotechnical parameters of the local material are: unit weight - γ = 21kN/m3;
internal friction angle -  = 35o; cohesion - c = 5kPa.
For filling the space between reinforcements, the local material is considered
cohesionless.
Initially, 5 layers of geotextile were considered, with strength in tension of
100kN/m, with 0.60m interdistance, 2 layers with 200kN/m strength at 0,60m
interdistance and 3 layers of 200kN/m strength at 0,30m interdistance.
The input data for Cartage are represented by: geometry of the massive;
characteristics of the filling soil, foundation soil and soil behind the retaining
structure; characteristics of the reinforcements; coordinates of the failure circles;
displacement value at the massive top; the presence of underground water.
The input data are presented in figure 5, a verification of their accuracy being
easily done.
6 A. Stanciu, O. Colţ, I. Lungu

Figure 5. Format of the input data for the computer program Cartage
“Computational Civil Engineering 2007”, International Symposium 7

3.3. Results

By running the program the output data are presented in a table consisting of the
extreme values for the safety coefficients according to the failure surfaces
considered, for the displacement, coefficient of anchorage and maximum stress.
Based on the required values by the designed norms, the necessity of altering the
reinforcing scheme is analyzed.
The alteration of the reinforcing solution is made according to the difference
between the imposed and obtained values and not in the least, based on the design
experience of the engineer.
Within the presented case study, the final values are set in a table for the first 12
failure circles as in figure 6 [5].

Figure 6. Final values as output data from the Cartage program

8 A. Stanciu, O. Colţ, I. Lungu

LEGEND:
• Values between parantheses ( , ) - number of the massive and reinforcement
with the smallest value of the coefficient of anchorage (ANCR), respectively
the maximum stress (TENR) for each failure circle.
• DELTA – displacement value ;
• F0 – value of the safety coefficient with reinforcing the massive ;
• FSOL – value of the safety coefficient after reinforcing the massive.

4. CONCLUSIONS

Using computer programs to design retaining structures made of reinforced soil

decreases significantly the design time. In order to perform an efficient design it is
required to master correctly the behaviour of the reinforced soil generally, and
especially the response of such structures subjected to various external loads.

References
1. Silion T., P. Răileanu, A. Stanciu - Fundaţii - Pământ armat, Institutul Politehnic Iaşi, Facultatea
de Construcţii, 1980.
2. Cartage – manual de utilizare, L.C.P.C, 1985.
3. Schlosser F - La terre armée, Recherches et realisations, Bull. liaison Labo P. et.ch. 62, nov. –
dec., 1972.
4. Schlosser F., Long T.N. – Dimensionnement de murs en terre armee, Session de formation
permanente, E.N.P.C., 1974.
5. Proiect tehnic şi detalii de execuţie - „RN 94 - Déviation d’Embrun", Geonove, Franţa.