I want to model a strip reinforced wall MSE in the lab, but in the large scales and in the field there is no need to change the scale. however, in the lab, strips are smaller than field but is it right to just decrease the dimensions??
Hi Mohamad,
generally, when using scale models one should take into account the by changing the geometry the relevant processes scale differently. There is a lot of literature on hydrodynamic scaling, I'm not familiar with strip reinforced walls, but basically (let's assume) a bending beam, the stiffness scales with the geometric scale raised to the power of 4, while the E-modulus (when using the same material) scales with 1 (as does the maximum stress). So you need to choose the most significant proces that you want to mimic, and then choose a combination of material and geometrical scale so as to obtain the right answers. In practice though this is hard to achieve because of limitations in available materials, lab equipment etc. An interesting article on scale models (in hydraulic engineering, but the principles are generic) can vbe found here:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00221686.2011.578914
kind regards
Francois Clemens
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