Performance of geosynthetic-reinforced soil structures at limit equilibrium state

Potential failure mechanisms representing various limit equilibrium states of geosynthetic-reinforced soil walls/slopes are employed to study the beha vior of reinforced soil walls/slopes. Parametric analyses were conducted to investigate the effects of varying the values of pore water pressure, soil strength, geosynthetic strength, soil-geosynthetic interaction coefficient s, vertical spacing of geosynthetic, surcharge load, facing slope, and back slope. In the analyses, geosynthetic-reinforced soil walls/slopes are assum ed to have competent foundations. Seepage forces and other dynamic forces s uch as earthquake forces have not been taken into account. Similarly, the s tabilizing effects of facing rigidity and strength are neglected. The resul ts are presented in a nondimensional graphical form. Methods of optimizing the design of geosynthetic-reinforced soil structures are suggested.