Sarah Paulsen

Masters Student

Sarah Paulsen, Masters student, is developing a numerical model for estimating permanent displacements of reinforced slopes subjected to earthquake shaking. Sarah received her BSCE from the University of Illinois before coming to the University of Washington. She defended her her thesis in March, 2002 and is spending the following year at Chalmers University in Goteborg, Sweden. Sarah's model accounts for the three primary mechanisms by which permanent displacements develop: (1) shearing of the soil within and behind the reinforced zone, (2) stretching/yielding of the reinforcement, and (3) pullout of the reinforcement. Each mechanism is modeled with relatively simple rheological elements. Calibration of the model required the development of functions that can map the parameters available to the reinforced slope designer (e.g. slope height and angle, reinforcement length, spacing, stiffness, and strength) into input parameters for the RMNM. The results of the calibration process showed that the calibrated RMNM produces good estimates of permanent displacements, very good estimates of yield acceleration, and can predict the manner in which permanent displacements develop with time.