Shear-lag analysis of a geosynthetic reinforced soil wall

This paper presents a method for verifying the performance of reinforced soil walls under working load conditions, using an analytical model based on shear-lag formulation. The theoretical results predicted from the model are compared with experimental results obtained from a prototype reinforced soil wall, which employs sandy soil reinforced with geogrid layers. The paper presents details on the procedure for applying the analytical model, the reference parameters for the analysis, the results obtained with the model and an analysis of the influence of these parameters. The results show that the analytical model can predict with accuracy the load distribution along the reinforcement layers.