A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF GEOGRID-REINFORCED SOIL RETAINING WALL: ANALYSIS METHODS AND DETERMINATION OF CRITICAL DESIGN PARAMETERS

Abstract

The geogrid-reinforced soil retaining wall plays an important role in the stabilization of both natural and engineered soil slopes, and the effectiveness of this kind of slope stabilization method has been proven by extensive engineering practice. A wide variety of literatures have conducted research on the behavior and performance of geogrid-reinforced soil retaining walls by various methods, however, it still remains a significant challenge to figure out this specific reinforcement mechanism that involves the interaction between the soil and the geogrid layers. Numerous numerical methods and analytical methods have been derived and purposed to study the mechanism of geogrid reinforcement, as well as the behavior of slope and the performance of geogrid layers subject to various conditions. To provide a solid foundation for the understanding of geogrid reinforcement mechanism, the internal, external, and overall instability mode of geogrid-reinforced soil retaining wall has been compared and discussed. The design methods of geogrid-reinforced soil retaining wall include Earth Pressure Theory, Limit Equilibrium Method, and Finite Element Method have been summarized and discussed with respect to their basic concepts and utilizations. The effect of critical design parameters of geogrid-reinforced soil retaining wall including wall-facing inclination, the reinforcement length, and the reinforcement spacing are important for the understanding of the behavior of geogrid-reinforced soil retaining wall, which therefore have been discussed and reviewed thoroughly from the literature.