Deformation Behaviors and Finite Element Analyses of Geosynthetic Reinforced Soil Walls

In this study, the FEM analysis for the two real geosynthetic reinforced soil (GRS) walls and the un-reinforced soil mass havebeen conducted to investigate the deformation behavior and the effect of geosynthetic reinforced soil wall. The results of analysis show that failure plane of the un-reinforced soil mass is consistent with the Rankine active state. However, failure plane was not occurred in GRS walls. In addition, the maximum horizontal displacement and the shear strain at the GRS wall are 50% smaller that those in the un-reinforced soil mass. Modeling results such as the maximum horizontal displacement, horizontal pressure, and geosynthetic tensile strengths in GRS wall have a good agreement with the measured data. Based on this study, it could be concluded that geosynthetic reinforcement will be effective to enhance the strength and to reduce the deformation of the backfill reinforcement.