Behavior analysis of reinforced soil retaining wall under cyclic loading

Abstract

A reinforced soil retaining wall is defined as a vertical-walled structure formed by increasing the stability of the backfill of the retaining wall with the installation of reinforcement materials such as geosynthetics, geogrids and steel strips into the backfill. Reinforced soil retaining walls are flexible structures as the friction between soil and reinforcement materials, and the connection between parts of the wall and reinforcement materials allow it to resist earth pressures. Because of this flexibility, reinforced soil retaining walls are considered a distinguished seismic-resistant structure. Moreover, in recent years, the use of reinforced soil retaining walls as a railroad bed-bearing structure has increased. However, studies of reinforced soil retaining walls on the characteristic of the behavior of the walls caused by cyclic loading of trains have been carried out scarcely; accordingly, stability and reliability of soil retaining walls have not been sufficiently proved.

Experiments were conducted in this study by applying cyclic loading to a reinforced soil retaining wall, in an attempt to understand its behavior, depending on the magnitude and the location of cyclic loading. Formulas of vertical earth pressure and displacement were also suggested.