Numerical study of the influence of foundation compressibility and reinforcement stiffness on the behavior of reinforced soil walls

Most geosynthetic and metallic reinforced soil walls are designed assuming that the wall foundation is rigid and/or does not influence the magnitude and distribution of reinforcement loads under operational conditions. This assumption may not apply to walls constructed over compliant (compressible) foundations. This paper describes the results of a series of numerical simulations that were carried out on idealized 3.6, 6, and 9 m-high modular block walls seated on foundations having four different compressibility values. The walls were constructed with two reinforcement materials having very different stiffness values but the same tensile strength. The results of simulations show that as foundation stiffness decreases, reinforcement loads increase. However, for the two reinforcement materials in this study, the influence of axial stiffness of the reinforcement had a greater effect on wall performance than the foundation stiffness for walls subjected to operational (working stress) conditions at end of construction.