Study of evolution of shear band systems in sand retained by flexible wall

The present paper is concerned with the study of the evolution of regular patterns of shear bands observed experimentally (cf. Milligan, 1974), and provides an extension of the previous work published by the same authors. The purpose of this paper is to present an improved version of a simple theoretical model, derived basically from a classical equilibrium of the Coulomb wedge. This model constitutes a modified version of an extension of the classical Coulomb wedge analysis by assuming that soil parameters are varying during the deformation process and the initial configuration at which limit equilibrium occurs evolves toward a new equilibrium configuration. The application of the model in the analysis of shear band pattern observed in dredged model tests on cantilever walls provided realistic simulation of consecutive shear band formation. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.