Three lateral earth pressure distribution in GRS walls - A FEM study

Unlike a conventional (unreinforced) retaining wall, the magnitude of the lateral earth pressure in a reinforced soil mass vary significantly from the facing to the back of the wall. Three different types of lateral earth pressure distributions are of interest to the designers. Based on the finite element analysis, the earth pressure against facing is smallest, while the earth pressure against the reinforced soil mass is largest, somewhat between k o and k a lines. The earth pressure along the plane of maximum tensile force in the reinforcement is between the above two extreme cases. Most current design approaches assumed a constant earth pressure throughout the reinforced zone, therefore the facing connection design and the internal stability analysis are overly conservative.