1995 Volume 10 Pages 37-46
To examine the effects of facing types upon stability and deformation of geotextile reinforced soil walls, failure experiments of full-scale models with different facings of 6m high were conducted. Findings from the experiments are as follows.
(1) The horizontal displacement of EPS blocks was larger than that of concrete blocks during construction, showing that deformation during construction could be reduced by the weight effect of facing materials. For divided type concrete-panel wall, the horizontal displacement was larger than that of other type of panel wall.
(2) In every case, the vertical pressure at the bottom of the facing was larger than the self dead weight.
(3) Maximum tensile forces distributed on the reinforcements after the construction were nearly equal at upper 3m part of facing and were smaller at lower 3m part compared with the required tensile forces which the effects of facing was not taken into account. The greater the longitudinal rigidity of facing material became, the more salient this tendency was.
(4) Tensile-force distribution similar to that on the main reinforcements was observed on sub-reinforcements suggesting that the sub-reinforcements were contributing to the stability.
(5) The shape of the slipping surface of the EPS-block wall after the failure was most similar to that of slip circle by the current design method. The failure surface of slipping of the concrete-block wall was similar to that of slip circle analogous to Coulomb's active failure surface, and the slipping shape of the concrete-panel wall to that of two-part wedge type. In case of the facing material of low rigidity, the failure was progressed as the creep phenomenon
