Lateral facing deformation versus factor of safety for geosynthetic-reinforced soil walls in a tiered configuration

Geosynthetic-reinforced soil (GRS) walls in a tiered configuration have been used for high earth retaining structures, especially in mountainous areas. More attention has recently been paid to lateral facing deformations and stability of such walls. A validated numerical model of a GRS wall was utilized to calculate the maximum lateral facing deformations and the maximum tensile forces in reinforcement layers in tiered GRS walls. The same model was used to compute their factors of safety (FS), using the shear strength reduction (SSR) method. A parametric study was carried out to assess the effects of backfill and foundation soil properties, reinforcement layout and stiffness, and tiered wall configuration on the maximum lateral facing deformations at the end of construction (EOC) and the FS values of the tiered GRS walls. Moreover, the relationship between the FS value and the normalized maximum lateral facing deformation at EOC was established. The comparison with the existing numerical results demonstrates that the empirical relationship established in this study can reasonably predict the FS values for tiered GRS walls.