Reinforced Soil Retaining Wall Testing, Modeling and Design (original) (raw)

This paper presents an overview of a program of physical and numerical modeling of reinforced soil walls conducted by the writer and co-workers, and the development of a new design approach for these systems. The physical testing described in the paper was carried out in a full-scale test facility at RMC and involved a series of wall models designed to isolate the contribution of facing type, reinforcement type and reinforcement arrangement on wall behaviour under serviceability conditions and surcharge loading approaching wall collapse. The numerical modeling was carried out using the program FLAC and the results verified against selected physical tests carried out at RMC. The results of physical tests carried out at RMC and data collected from instrumented structures reported in the literature has led to the development of an empirical-based design methodology (K-stiffness Method). This new approach to reinforced soil wall design has been quantitatively and qualitatively demonstrated to be much more accurate than the current limit equilibrium-based tie-back wedge design method currently used in North America.