Stability and failure modes of geosynthetic reinforced soil wall with limited retained backfill

As a special case of shored mechanically stabilized earth wall, the geosynthetic reinforced soil wall with limited retained backfill has not been recognized previously for its performance. A 2-D numerical model, which is calibrated from centrifugal tests, is built using FLAC. This paper discusses the stability and failure modes of this kind of wall considering the factors of reinforcement spacing, reinforcement length and the angle between the wall face and the vertical plane. It is found that the active earth pressure behind the limited reinforced soil wall is about one half to one third the value of the coulomb active earth pressure. The wall fails at the compound mode under the condition of stable foundation, and the failure plane presents a fold line with passing through backfill and reinforced soil region in the lower part of the wall and almost going along with the interface between backfill and shoring wall in the upper part of the wall. The failure plane gradually forms from bottom to top with the feature of shear state and tension state in the lower and upper parts of the wall, respectively. Furthermore, the wall is stable even when the reinforcement length is 0.4 H and reinforcement spacing plays an important role in controlling the stability of the wall.