Applicability of computational methods for soil-nailing walls

Many calculation methods for soil nailing walls have been developed. Having ignored applicable preconditions sometimes results in the incorrect conclusions. This paper presents in detail the typical methods widely-used in practice, and particularly the suppositions in deducing them. The preconditions are highlighted to evaluate the specific stability of soil nailing walls. Some noticeable issues to use these methods, such as reasonably selecting a computational model and specifying a slip surface in shape and further appreciating the definition of factor of safety, are presented aiming to provide some insight into the safety, economical and optimal design of soil nailing walls to propose.