Soil nail design, soil nail wall design with DeepXcav!

Soil nail design requires carefull consideration of many parameters. Constructing a soil nailed wall involves reinforcing the soil as work progresses in the excavated area by the introduction of passive bars, which essentially work in tension. These are usually parallel to one another and slightly inclined downward. These bars can also work partially in bending and by shear. The skin friction between the soil and the nails puts the latter in tension, and transfers acting soil forces deeper within the soil mass.

Using this method, and working from the top downward, a mass of reinforced soil is gradually built up. In order to keep the soil from caving in between the bars, some sort of facing needs to be installed. This facing is generally constructed with some shotcrete reinforced by a welded wire mesh. This facing can be vertical, battered to a wide variety of angles, or made up of a series of benches. The passive bars are often referred as “nails” and the soil reinforcing technique is known as “soil nailing”.

Once constructed, a soil nailed wall shows a certain similarity with a Reinforced Earth wall. However, the fact  that a soil nailed wall is been built downward with the soil being reinforced in situ, while a Reinforced Earth wall is constructed by building an embankment that is then strengthened as the work progresses, constitutes an essential difference between the two.

DeepXcav can also design soil nail walls as it incorporates the recommendations by the French Clouterre, AASHTO LRFD, and Eurocode. Soil nailing with DeepXcav includes the following capabilities: