Behaviour of geosynthetic reinforced soil retaining walls using the finite element method

The Paper describes finite element models that are used to simulate the behaviour of two carefully constructed and monitored large-scale geosynthetic reinforced soil retaining walls. The walls were constructed using a dense sand fill and layers of extensible polymeric (geosynthetic) reinforcement attached to two very different facing treatments. The model walls were taken to collapse using a series of uniform surcharge loads applied at the sand fill surface. The Paper demonstrates that correct modelling of the dilatant behaviour of the sand soil is required to give accurate predictions of wall performance. A modified form of hyperbolic constitutive model that includes a dilation parameter is adopted to model the behaviour of the granular soil. Mechanical properties of the constituent components of the large-scale physical models are established using standard laboratory tests including constant load tests on the polymeric reinforcement from which isochronous load-strain-time data is developed. The results of analyses show that the finite element model, constitutive models and implementation reported in this study can accurately predict all important features of wall performance. © 1995.