GEOSYNTHETICS ENGINEERING: IN

THEORY AND PRACTICE

Prof. J. N. Mandal

Department of civil engineering, IIT Bombay,

Powai , Mumbai 400076, India.
Tel.022-25767328
email: cejnm@civil.iitb.ac.in

Prof. J. N. Mandal, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay

 Module - 6
LECTURE - 27
Geosynthetics for reinforced soil retaining walls

Prof. J. N. Mandal, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay

Recap of previous lecture..

Mechanically stabilized segmental reinforced soil wall

Geosynthetic reinforced soil wall system
Major components of reinforced soil system

Precast concrete modular blocks or panel facings and

connections
Design of geosynthetics reinforced soil retaining wall
(Partly covered)

Prof. J. N. Mandal, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay

Step 4: Determine design factor of safety (FS) based on
mode of failures

The geosynthetic reinforced soil wall is designed based on

limit equilibrium method of analysis. The two limit states
are:

(i) Ultimate limit state: actual failure (collapse) of the

reinforced soil wall.

(ii) Serviceability limit states: excessive deformation and/or

settlement of reinforced soil walls.
Check the settlement criteria of reinforced soil
structure using conventional methods.
Prof. J. N. Mandal, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay
 External stability:

Prof. J. N. Mandal, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay

 Sliding: Factor of safety (FS) 1.5
Overturning: FS 2.0
Bearing capacity: FS 2.5
Overall (Deep-seated) stability: FS 1.3
Seismic stability: FS 1.1 or 75 % of all static FS

Estimate settlement using conventional settlement

analysis

Prof. J. N. Mandal, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay

 Check external wall stability with a uniform
surcharge load (Ultimate Limit state)

Reinforced soil wall with uniform surcharge load

Prof. J. N. Mandal, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay
 Rankines failure surface
Prof. J. N. Mandal, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay
 Rankines distribution of lateral earth pressure
Ws = surcharge pressure
Wq = Weight of surcharge load = W s. L
Wr = Weight of reinforced soil = r. H. L
Pb = Lateral soil pressure from backfill
Pq = Lateral pressure due to surcharge load
Prof. J. N. Mandal, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay
 = tan = Co-efficient of shearing resistance between
soil and reinforcement.

= Angle of shearing resistance between soil and

reinforcement.

Ca = Adhesion between soil and reinforcement.

Prof. J. N. Mandal, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay

 Factor of safety against sliding

FSsliding
Horizontal Re sisting Forces
Horizontal Driving Forces

Total driving force = Pb + Pq

1 Pq K ab .Ws .H
Pb K ab . b .H 2
2

Kab = tan2(450-b/2) = Coefficient of active earth

pressure of backfill soil behind reinforced zone

Prof. J. N. Mandal, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay

Total Resisting force
= . (Wr + W q) + Ca.L = . (r. H. L + W s. L) + Ca. L

.( r .H.L Ws L) C a .L
FSsliding 1.5
K ab .H(0.5 b .H Ws )

Prof. J. N. Mandal, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay

 Factor of safety against overturning

FSoverturning
Re sisting Moment
Overturning Moment
Overturning Moment about the toe (Mov),
H H H3 H2
M ov P b . Pq . M ov K ab . b . K ab .Ws .
3 2 6 2

Resisting moment about the toe (Mr),

L L L L2 L2
Mr Wr . Wq. MR (r .H.L Ws .L). MR r .H. Ws .
2 2 2 2 2

3( Ws r .H)
FSoverturnin g 2
2.0
H
K ab .( b .H 3Ws )
L

Prof. J. N. Mandal, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay

 Factor of safety against bearing capacity

Meyerhofs stress distribution for ground bearing pressure

Eccentricity (e) = Lbottom/2 x' = Mov / V
x' = (Mr Mov)/ V; V = total vertical load = W q + Wr
If e L/6, no tension will develop beneath the footing.
From Mayerhofs distribution, the acting length (L') = L 2e
Prof. J. N. Mandal, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay
Two types of bearing capacity failures:

General shear:
The maximum vertical stress, vmax
r .H Ws
Wq Wr v max
v max 2e
L 2e 1
L

H H
M ov
Pb . Pq . K ab .H 2 ( b .H 3Ws ) L
e 3 2 e
V W r Wq 6L( r .H Ws ) 6

( r .H Ws )
v max 2
K ( .H 3Ws ) H
1 ab b
3( r .H Ws ) L

Prof. J. N. Mandal, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay

Ultimate bearing capacity of soil (qult),

q ult c f N c 0.5 f L' N

Nc, N = dimensionless bearing capacity factors

L' = L 2e

q ult
FS bearing capacity 2 .5
v max

Prof. J. N. Mandal, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay

 Local shear:
If the subsoil is poor, the bearing capacity is to be
increased. Three layers of geogrids or geocell mattress
can be provided beneath the foundation for ground
improvement.

Three layer of geogrids Geocell as a mattress

foundation
Prof. J. N. Mandal, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay
 Slip failure / overall (deep-seated) stability:
For deep-seated (overall) stability, use rotational slip
method by classical slope stability analysis. The failure
surface will pass completely outside the reinforced soil
mass.
Computer program is available to solve this problem.
Factor of safety against overall stability 1.3.
Particularly in case of an unstable hillside, the potential
compound failure may occur.
The overall or global stability should not be avoided.

Prof. J. N. Mandal, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay

 EXTERNAL STABILITY FOR SEISMIC LOADING

The conservative pseudo-static Mononobe-Okabe

analysis is recommended by AASHTO and FHWA
guidelines for the seismic design of geosynthetic
mechanically stabilized earth walls.

Apart from the static thrust, a seismic thrust or

dynamic horizontal thrust (PAE) is also acting on the
reinforced soil walls during an earthquake

Prof. J. N. Mandal, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay

Dynamic horizontal thrust acting on the reinforced soil
walls during an earthquake.
Prof. J. N. Mandal, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay
 PAE 0.375 m b H 2 (Seed and Whitman, 1970)

m (1.45 - o ) o (Segrestin and Bastic, 1988)

m = maximum wall acceleration coefficient at centroid of

wall mass,
b = unit weight of backfill,
H = height of reinforced soil wall, and
o = maximum ground acceleration coefficient.

For example, o = 0.04 for zone III (IS: 1893-1984).

The dynamic force (PAE) acts at a distance of 0.6H from

the base of the wall.
Prof. J. N. Mandal, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay
 The horizontal inertia force PIR is defined as,
PIR M m

M = mass of active zone of reinforced wall with

base width of 0.5H.
PIR m r HL (Seed and Mitchell, 1981)

r = Unit weight of reinforced zone,

L = length of reinforcement,
H = Height of reinforced soil wall

50% of seismic thrust PIR is to be considered. The

reduction in PIR is due to the fact that two forces are
unlikely to peak simultaneously.
Prof. J. N. Mandal, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay
Add all of the forces to determine the total horizontal
active force due to seismic loading:

Horizontal component of active earth pressure due to

the retained back fill.

Horizontal active earth pressure due to the surcharge.

Seismic thrust (PAE), and

50 % horizontal inertia force PIR.

Prof. J. N. Mandal, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay

a) Check for Sliding due to seismic loading:

Calculate resisting force (same of static condition)

Calculate total active horizontal force including the total

horizontal force due to seismic loading.

Check dynamic factor of safety = 0.75 x static factor of

safety.

Re sisting force
FOSSliding seismic 1.5x 0.75
Total active horizontal force

Prof. J. N. Mandal, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay

b) Check for overturning due to seismic loading:

Calculate resisting moment (same of static condition)

Calculate total driving moment.

- Horizontal force PIR is acting at the centre of gravity of

the reinforced zone

- Dynamic horizontal thrust (PAE) is acting at a distance of

0.6H from the base of the reinforced soil.

Total resisting moment

FOSov for seismic 0.75 x 2.0
Total driving moment

Prof. J. N. Mandal, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay

Step 5: Check internal stability of geosynthetic
reinforced soil wall (Ultimate limit state)

Allowable tensile strength of geosynthetic and the

geosynthetic-soil friction parameters play a very important
role.

The wide width test of geosynthetic should be conducted

according to ASTM or other test standards to determine
the ultimate tensile strength (Tult) of geosynthetics.

Tult
Tallowable
Cumulativereductionfactor

Calculate the long term design strength (LTDS)

= Treqd Tallowable
Prof. J. N. Mandal, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay
 Internal stability:

Spacing of geosynthetic reinforcement

Anchorage length of the geosynthetic reinforcement
Connection strength between the geosynthetic
reinforcement and wall panels

Internal stability design of geosynthetic reinforced soil wall

Prof. J. N. Mandal, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay
a) Determine maximum developed tensile strength (Treqd)
and vertical spacing (Sv)

Basic concept of evaluating the required tensile strength

Prof. J. N. Mandal, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay
The maximum tensile force without considering any shear
between the slices and the facing can be expressed as,

Treqd. = k. v. Sv = h Sv

For geogrid, Treqd = Sv h/ Cr

Cr = Coverage ratio = width of reinforcement (w)/ center-to-

center horizontal spacing between two reinforcement (Sh)

Prof. J. N. Mandal, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay

 Determination of coverage ratio
Cr = 1 (reinforcement is continuous and covers 100 % in
plan view)
Cr = 0.6 (reinforcement covers 60 percent in plan view)
Prof. J. N. Mandal, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay
Now, h = hs + hq

hs = soil pressure = r H Kar

hq = surcharge pressure = Kar q

So, total horizontal earth pressure, h = r H Kar + Kar .q

K ar tan 2 45 r
2

r = coefficient of friction in reinforced soil zone

Kar = coefficient of active earth pressure in reinforced
soil zone
H = height of wall

Prof. J. N. Mandal, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay

 Generally, the vertical spacing of the reinforcement is
between 0.2 m to 0.8 m for mechanically stabilized earth
walls i.e. reinforced soil wall.

For geosynthetic wrapped face wall, the vertical

spacing varies between 0.2 m to 0.5 m.

For modular block wall-face, vertical spacing is twice

the width of the modular block or 0.8 m whichever is less
(AASHTO Standard Specifications for Bridges, 1996,
with 1997 Interims).
Prof. J. N. Mandal, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay
b) Determine the embedded length (Le) of geosynthetic
reinforcement

S v . h .FS pull
Sv . h .FSpull 2.L e .Ci . v tan r '.C r Le
2 v .C r .C i . tan r '

FSpull = factor of safety against pull-out failure

Cr = coverage ratio
Ci = Interaction coefficient determined from pullout test
Prof. J. N. Mandal, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay
 Please let us hear from you

Any question?

Prof. J. N. Mandal, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay

 Prof. J. N. Mandal
Department of civil engineering, IIT Bombay,
Powai , Mumbai 400076, India.
Tel.022-25767328
email: cejnm@civil.iitb.ac.in

Prof. J. N. Mandal, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay