ABSTRACT
Reinforced soil walls (RSW) are a proven alternative to conventional earth retaining structures due to their rapid construction, smaller environmental impact, lower cost, as well as more sustainable social/functional features. Design methods for RSW appear in international codes and guidelines. However, they often do not provide detailed calculations for global stability assessment. Global stability can significantly affect RSW design for specific geometric cases and/or site-specific boundary conditions. Traditional limit equilibrium (LE) methods have the disadvantage of not considering reinforcements and/or require iterations to achieve a safety factor (SF) value. Alternatively, numerical methods can be time consuming for both model generation, particularly for complex geometries, and during calculations. The present study discusses different analytical strategies using limit equilibrium formulations and a numerical finite element method, and proposes a simplified analytical method for global stability analysis based on a three-part wedge failure mechanism, and simple wall conditions.
