Numerical simulation of bearing capacity of aeolian sand-gabion

Aeolian sand is widely distributed in the northwest region of China and serves as an ideal solid filling material. Providing lateral constraint is an effective way to utilize this granular material. Taking Aeolian sand backfilling cages as the research object, the bearing capacity was studied through uniaxial compression experiments, numerical simulation experiments, and theoretical analysis. The results show that the peak stress at the time of model failure increases with the increase of wire diameter and mesh count based on uniaxial compression experiments, while it decreases with the increase of cage size. Similarly, for large-sized Aeolian sand backfilling cages, the peak stress at the time of failure also decreases with the increase in size, and the failure occurs at the boundary connection. According to the ANSYS simulation results of the stress and deformation of the backfilling cages, the lateral constraint strength is crucial for the deformation of Aeolian sand backfilling bodies. The maximum lateral deformation of the backfilling cages occurs near the opening, and the lateral deformation distribution shows a characteristic of larger upper part and smaller lower part. The lateral restraint force provided by the lateral mesh of the backfilling cages increases with the increase in lateral deformation of the cages. When backfilling cages of different metal mesh specifications are subjected to the same load, the lateral deformation of the metal cages increases with the increase in cage size and aperture, and decreases with the increase in wire diameter. When the lateral deformations of different cages are the same, the lateral constraint force provided by the cages to the Aeolian sand decreases with the increase in cage size and aperture, and increases with the increase in wire diameter. The numerical simulation results of the wire tension of the cages with a size of 600 mm, aperture of 50 mm, and wire diameter of 6 mm were compared with the theoretical analysis results, and the error of the wire tension obtained from both methods was less than 5% under different deformation conditions.