REINFORCED EARTH

FARCIMAR acquired in 2002 for all national territory, the operating license of the patent system FRAGILITY DIRECTED (F. D. System), and in 2013 patent the system SMART WALL, the applied to meetings of art and walls of reinforced earth.

The enormous success accomplished was immediate and to prove it, there are several reference works already implemented and in service, all of them with good behaviour.

Such success is due to the Reinforced Earth which allows the use of panels (in reinforced concrete) with great height and substantial advantages in mounting and performance.

ADVANTAGES OF MOUNTING

•High performance;
•Greater independence with movement of lands (landfill);
•Facility, speed and perfection without effort;
•Largest economy.

ADVANTAGES OF PERFORMANCE

•Doesn’t require foundations;
•Possibility to reach superior heights of 20 mts;
•Better behaviour in soils of low quality;
•Better seismic behaviour;
•Aptitude for flood works;
•Better landfill control.

Reinforced Earth walls are defined as handling facilities, composed by the following elements:

•Facing composed at least by an important inferior range of plates / panels with lines of fragility (preferably fracture) providing simultaneous monolithic and deformalism;
•Wall footing and “sustaining wedge” in low capacity regular concrete;
•Landfilling soils selected with granular material following the technical requirements;
•Galvanized steel reinforcement (flat or ribbed) disposed in horizontal layers and fixed by one of its extremes to the facing;
•Separator elements and firm joint devices although fexible between the plates of facing;
•Geotextil blades disposed on the wall-backing joint.

TECHNICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Concrete
•Compressive strength class – C30/37;
•Full dimension of Inert – 22mm;
•Concrete consistency – S1;
•Chloride levels – Cl 0.10 (Cl- < 0.10 % per coloured cement);
•Exposition – according to legal requirements;

Steel
Armour of the precast elements:
•Rebar and electro-welded mesh A500 NRSD and/or A500 ER

Reinforcement armour in galvanized steel flat or ribbed:
•RM – 410 N/mm2;
•Galvanization – 600 g/m2 (double sided)

Cover of armours – according to the exposition class.

DIMENSIONING

The verification of the stability of structures in Reinforced earth is done following the referred procedures in “Les Ouvrages en Terre Armée – Recommandations et Régles D’Art” (LCPC-SETRA, 1979) and takes still into account the constant recommendations EN N14475 “Execution of special geotechnical works – Reinforced full” (2006).

The calculations obey what was defined by the customer / base project and take into account the typology of use of the support structure to build and the recommendations of the patented system.

The analyse is developed and implemented by the technical department at Farcimar in close liaison with extreme specialized consultants in the geotechnical area, through the automatic calculation where they evaluate the external local and global stability, as well as internal stability under static and dynamic conditions.

PRODUCTION

The precast elements of the facing unit of the reinforced earth type wall are produced by the procedure we define as manual moulding, in metal tables of high strength with coupled vibration executed through high frequency pneumatic vibrators allowing the obtaining of high quality and rigorous parts, presenting a perfect finishing.

The production system allows the production of panels with diferent modulations, according to the needs of each project, by just doing little adjustments in movable elements (divisions).

The production process of precast reinforced concrete panels comprises the following tasks:

•Preparation of moulds;
•Mounting of armours, connecting plates and other accessories;
•Concreting;
•Curing in the mould;
•Demoulding;
•Storage.

QUALITY

After the implementation of the harmonized rules of reference and subsequent audit from the SGS audit team, in the beginning of 2011 was assigned to FARCIMAR the CE Marking Certi?cate on factory production control of the precast reinforced concrete walls complying with the requirements under the Harmonized Rules EN 15258:2008.

The dimensioning, the production and control of the precast elements complying with the harmonized rules and the specifications of the patent, associated to versatility and strength of the productive equipments, handled by experienced operational teams, allow the obtaining of parts with high quality and accuracy with the maximum of profitability.

MOUNTING

The execution procedure of a reinforced earth wall is properly described in the document “Mounting Guide” delivered to the customer as a part of the projects execution.

Beyond the specific project of reinforced earth wall as well as the production and transport of the precast concrete panels, Farcimar also does its mounting in site, what happened in the whole works provided until today.

The execution of a wall type earth reinforced comprises the following tasks:
•General excavation and preparation of the earth reinforced massive platform;
•Construction of levelling floors in “poor concrete” which supports the precast panels of the facing;
•Application of the concrete panels, supporting them and placing the “connectors” between the panels;
•Realization of the sustaining wedge / clamping on the panel’s surface according to the insertion of the “poor concrete”;
•Insertion of geotextile strips in joints between panels;
•Landfilling with controlled material until the level of the first layer of reinforced armours which sets the project;
•Landfilling with controlled material until the level of the clamping line on an immediate band to the exterior facing of the wall;
•Successive insertion of the reinforced armours and layers of embankment until the crest of the concrete plates;
•Successive insertion of superior panels, if any, following the chain of placement of armours, layers of embankment, separators and joints between panels.
•Remove all the wedges and temporary fixing elements;
•Application of the edge beams if expected in the project.