Behavior of MSE wall under static load with different strips shapes

MSE walls are deemed highly suitable for challenging foundation soil conditions characterised by anticipated differential settlements due to their inherent flexibility and mechanical redundancy. Typically, MSE retaining walls are composed of structural fill material reinforced with inclusions capable of withstanding tensile forces, which are interconnected with facing elements. The mechanical interactions among the three components of the reinforced soil structure, namely the fill material, reinforcement, and facing, are responsible for ensuring its internal stability. Accordingly, the current research aims to study the behaviour of MSE walls under static load. The working methodology of the study focuses on simulating the MSE wall simplified model approximately. The model enables the investigation of many parameters; Zigzag shape and Straight shape; for that, two specimens are built and tested approximately. This research used two shapes of soil strengthened; the first one is the zigzag type, and the second one is the straight type. After applying static load, we recorded lateral soil pressure, vertical soil pressure, strip strains, concrete strain, and lateral displacement of panels. The results showed that the zigzag shape is better than the straight shape. The results show that the zigzag shape is better than the straight shape on the stability of the MSE wall; the zigzag shape gave small lateral displacement and less pressure effect than the straight shape by 19% in lateral pressure, While the zigzag shape gives better results than straight shape by 60% in vertical pressure. Also, using of zigzag strips reinforcement give lower displacement in MSE wall than straight strips. In addition to that using both kinds of soil strips reinforcement led to decrease later displacement with depth. And the straight shape gives better results than zigzag shape by 50% in reducing the displacement. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024.