Limit Analysis of Lateral Earth Pressure on Geosynthetic-Reinforced Retaining Structures Subjected to Strip Footing Loading Using Finite Element and Second-Order Cone Programming

Stability of reinforced retaining structures under a variety of surficial loadings is of particular significance in geotechnical engineering practice. In the current study, adopting the well-established lower-bound limit analysis in conjunction with the finite element discretization method and second-order cone programming, a rigorous numerical study is carried out to evaluate the active lateral earth pressure on geosynthetic-reinforced retaining walls subjected to overlying strip footing loadings. The significant influence of the length (Le) and number (n) of reinforcement layers, load intensity (q), width of strip footing (B) and its distance from the wall (a) on the lateral earth pressure is examined. It is shown that using reinforcements longer than a specific length fails to have any further significant contributions to the wall stability. With the increase in load intensity and width of the strip footing, the reinforcements are found to be further effectual in reducing the rate of increase in the value of active earth pressure coefficient. Moreover, the reinforcements are observed to be more effective in enhancing the rate of decrease in the earth pressure coefficient with the increase in the foundation-wall distance, up to a threshold value, beyond which they show the reverse influence.