Full-scale failure experiments of geotextile-reinforced soil walls with different facings

The design manuals of geotextile-reinforced soil walls proposed to date vary in the evaluation method of retaining effect of facings. Facings have five kinds of retaining effect; i.e., local rigidity, overall axial rigidity, overall shear rigidity, overall bending rigidity, and gravity resistance. Ifa design method which can derive these kinds of wall effects is made available, more rational and economical design will become possible. To grasp the influence of wall effect for reinforced soil walls, three geotextile-reinforced walls (6-meter high, vertical walls) with different facings (EPS blocks, concrete panels and concrete blocks) were constructed in a laboratory and a series of experiments was conducted until their failure due to cutting of their reinforcements. This paper deals with new findings from the results of the experiments through comparison.