Horizontal deformation in reinforced soil walls

The results of a numerical study of the horizontal deformations of reinforced soil walls with a continuous panel facing are presented. The most important material parameters are shown to be the reinforcement stiffness density and the backfill soil friction angle. The soil-facing interface friction angle, reinforcement-soil friction angle, soil Young's modulus, and facing rigidity are less important. For backfill soil having a friction angle greater than or equal to 35°, the common practice of using a truncated reinforcement scheme with reinforcement length equal to 70% of the wall height was found to be justified. Increasing the reinforcement length did not significantly reduce deformations; however, reducing the length below about 45% of the wall height did significantly increase deformations. Equally spaced reinforcement was found to give lower deformations than a "balanced" scheme, in which the spacing of reinforcement decreases with depth to provide a more uniform distribution of force in the reinforcement layers. A comparison of the numerical results and the results from an approximate method indicates reasonable agreement and identifies situations where the approximate method is most likely to give accurate results.