Numerical Simulation Study on the Effect of Wrapped-Face Length on the Static Load Performance of Retaining Walls

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-932-2_7How to use a DOI?

Keywords

reinforced soil retaining wall; wrapping of reinforcement free end; numerical simulation; wrap-back length

Abstract

Reinforced soil retaining walls have been widely adopted in China’s expressway and high-speed railway subgrade projects due to their superior performance, cost-effectiveness, and environmental benefits. To address insufficient anchorage length caused by spatial constraints during construction—a critical issue leading to non-compliant designs—this study established a numerical model using PLAXIS 2D to investigate how wrap-back length at the free end of reinforcements affects the bearing capacity of reinforced soil retaining walls. The results demonstrate that as the top uniformly distributed load increases, the additional stress at measurement points directly below the loading center exceeds their self-weight stress. Both wall horizontal displacement and top vertical displacement grow proportionally with load increments. Notably, horizontal displacement decreases from the top to the bottom along the wall height, peaking at the uppermost layer. The wrap-back length significantly influences horizontal and vertical displacements: increasing it within an optimal range effectively mitigates instability risks. Specifically, a wrap-back length of 2.00 times the wall height (l = 2.00h) achieves optimal control over vertical displacement at both the wall surface and top. These findings provide critical insights for optimizing reinforcement design under constrained construction conditions.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Ruijun Dong
AU  - Di Wu
AU  - Jianjian Wu
AU  - Haiyang Li
AU  - Yanheng Li
AU  - Liansheng Li
AU  - Zhili Yuan
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/22
TI  - Numerical Simulation Study on the Effect of Wrapped-Face Length on the Static Load Performance of Retaining Walls
BT  - Proceedings of the 2025 2nd International Conference on Civil Engineering Structures and Concrete Materials (CESCM 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 49
EP  - 58
SN  - 2352-5401
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-932-2_7
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-932-2_7
ID  - Dong2025
ER  -