Continuous Panel Reinforced Soil Walls on Rigid Foundations

The effects of reinforcement stiffness density, reinforcement/soil friction angle, facing/soil friction angle, backfill friction angle, and facing rigidity on the behavior of continuous panel faced reinforced solid walls on a rigid foundation are examined. It is shown that the interaction between the components of the reinforced system determines the stress distribution in the soil and the manner in which the required total resisting force is distributed in the reinforcement layers. This results in a force distribution in the connections and reinforcement that can depart significantly from what might be expected based on a triangular stress distribution. The validity of conventional approaches to estimating the vertical stress distribution is studied.