Seismic Responses of Reinforced Soil Retaining Walls and the Strain Softening of Backfill Soils

Abstract

Considering that most geosynthetic-reinforced soil structures (GRS) are backfilled with well-compacted granular soils exhibiting evident strain-softening, it is expected that the mobilized soil strength beyond the peak would affect the response of GRS structures if the earthquake-induced deformation is large. This issue is particularly relevant if GRS structures are to be designed against seismic loading based on permanent displacement. In this study, a calibrated finite-element procedure was used to investigate the influences of strain softening of backfill soils on the deformation and reinforcement load of wrapped-face GRS walls. Dense Toyoura sand, a medium dense Japanese silty sand, and loose Fuji River sand were used as backfills of model GRS walls, which were subjected to sinusoidal excitation ranging from 0.1 to