Centrifugal model test on influence of relative compactness on reinforced soil retaining walls

Since the emergence of reinforced soil, reinforced soil retaining walls, which are composed of panel facing, reinforcement and soil, have been widely studied and used in civil engineering such as road engineering and railway engineering. Soil compaction has a significant influence on the deformation, earth pressure, and reinforcement tensile force of reinforced soil retaining walls. In order to study the influence of soil relative compactness on reinforced soil retaining walls, three groups of centrifugal model tests with different soil relative compactness are carried out and the following conclusions have been drawn by analyzing the experimental data: the horizontal deformation of the panel facing decreases as soil relative compactness increases, especially in the loading period; the tested horizontal earth pressure values behind the panel facing are greater than the design values because of soil compaction; the tested reinforced soil retaining walls are conservative because the interface friction coefficient between the reinforcement and the soil is less than the value recommended by design codes; analysis shows that the connection force between reinforcements and panel facing is smaller than the value of horizontal earth pressure obtained from the model tests.