Forensic study on geosynthetic reinforced soil walls with corner turns

Abstract

Geosynthetic Reinforced Soil (GRS) involve the use of reinforcement inclusions to enhance the engineering properties of the soil mass. In doing so, the backfill soil is internally retained, which dispenses the primary need of conventional concrete elements, such as those adopted in a gravity retaining wall system. There were discrepancies exhibited on the facings of a GRS structure when there are sharp turns at the corner edges. This stemmed the need to examine the failure mechanisms associated with the GRS structure in order to develop an understanding of what drives and resists the mechanisms. In doing so, the soil and geosynthetic properties standalone were investigated, along with the soil-geosynthetic interaction, compaction effects and the facing contribution. A numerical analysis model was carried out using a numerical software TNO Diana. The compression and tension effects on the modular blocks used as facing elements in such walls were examined, and the patterns had corroborated well with an empirical prototype model, which indicates that the numerical analysis is suitable for inspecting the stress/strain values manifested as a design procedure.