Study on deformation and failure mechanisms of reinforced soil retaining walls subjected to horizontal static/dynamic loading

In practical engineering, reinforced earth retaining walls bear not only vertical load but also horizontal static load and impact load. In this paper, indoor model tests of reinforced earth retaining walls subjected to horizontal static and dynamic loads were carried out. The deformation, horizontal earth pressure, reinforcement strain and potential failure surface were analyzed and summarized respectively to explore the deformation and failure mechanisms. The results show that the stability of reinforced earth retaining walls can be enhanced by reducing the reinforcement spacing and increasing the length of reinforcement material, which are also beneficial to control the deformation, and that it is more effective to increase the reinforcement length to resist the impact load. The deformation and the earth pressure develop gradually under the action of the horizontal static load, but have obvious"stepped"sudden changes under the action of the impact load. The reinforcement strain under both static and dynamic loads presents a single peak state, and the peak strain at each reinforcement layer decreases from top to bottom, which is consistent with the deformation of the retaining walls. The failure mode of the retaining walls under the horizontal load is different from that under the vertical load. When the length of the reinforcement is 0.75 times the wall height H, the reinforced soil retaining walls under static and dynamic loads will be damaged at the end of the reinforced area, but when the length is increased to 1.5H, the failure modes under static and dynamic loads are different. The results of this research can not only provide basis and reference for the design and research of reinforced soil retaining walls under the horizontal load, but also enrich the theory of reinforced soils. © 2021, Science Press. All right reserved.