Bridges are important social infrastructure, and in particular, the stability of the back-fill behind the abutment determines the safety of the entire bridge. Recent climate change has increased the risk of flooding, and damage caused by back-fill erosion and collapse is increasing. The objective of this study is to elucidate the damage mechanism of the back-fill of bridge abutments during floods and to propose new reinforcement techniques. In the experiments, indoor open channel tests using a scaled model were conducted to verify the effectiveness of the Gabion Faced Reinforced Soil Wall (GRW), which is a reinforcement method integrating gabions and geosynthetics to reduce the collapse of the back-fill due to flooding. The result of the study showed that the GRW was effective in preventing the collapse of the back-fill due to flooding. As a result, the time until complete collapse of the back-fill was three times longer in the case where GRW was installed than in the case where no countermeasures were taken. This suggests that GRW may be effective during flood events. However, boiling due to changes in pore water pressure occurred inside the back-fill, resulting in progressive sediment discharge. In particular, the effect of the gabion installation geometry was observed, confirming that the corner design is important to control scour. This study experimentally verified the effectiveness of the reinforced soil wall and provided knowledge that contributes to improving the durability of abutment back-fill during flooding. In the future, quantitative evaluation will be conducted to establish a more practical design method.

Assessment of seismic deformations of geosynthetic reinforced soil (GRS) walls in literature has dealt with unsolved challenges, encompassing time-consuming analyses, lack of probabilistic-based analyses, ignored inherent uncertainties of seismic loadings and limited investigated scenarios of these structures, especially for tall walls. Hence, a novel multiple analysis method has been proposed, founded on over 257,400 machine learning simulations (trained with 1582 finite element method analyses) and numerous performance-based fragility curves, to promptly evaluate the seismic vulnerability. The conducted probabilistic parametric study revealed that simultaneously considering several intensity measures for fragility curves is inevitable, preventing engineering judgement bias (up to 52% discrepancies in damage possibilities). Up to 75% contrasts between failure possibilities of 8 and 20 m walls, especially under earthquakes with common intensities (e.g. PGA <= 0.3g), raised serious concerns in the application of height-independent designing methods of GRS walls (e.g. AASHTO Simplified Method). Decreases in deformation possibilities were nearly the same due to increasing reinforcement stiffness (J) (1000 to 2000 kN/m) and reinforcement length to wall height ratio (L/H) (0.8 to 1.5); a decisive superiority of J variations over increasing L/H, as a remedial plan. The proposed methodology privileges engineers to swiftly assess the seismic deformations of multiple GRS walls at the design stage.

In the present study, the centrifuge modeling approach was utilized to investigate the efficacy of dual-functional hybrid geosynthetics as reinforcement in alleviating the destabilizing effects of rainfall on geosynthetic-reinforced soil walls (GRSWs) with low-permeable backfill. A series of centrifuge experiments were executed employing a tailored in-flight rainfall simulation mechanism, generating mistlike fine droplets at 40g on a rigid-facing GRSW with a height of 10 m and provided with a low-permeable silty sand backfill. To comprehensively assess the performance, pore water pressures were continuously monitored using pore pressure transducers. Digital image analysis (DIA) was employed to evaluate surface settlements, wall face movements, and strains encountered by geosynthetic layers during rainfall. The centrifuge test results indicated that GRSW without any drainage provisions developed substantial pore water pressures and experienced a catastrophic slip failure within a brief period of rainfall exposure. Providing a granular drainage layer behind the facing in isolation was noticed to be futile with a GRSW failure in 16.85 days, coupling the drainage layer with hybrid geosynthetic reinforcements with high transmissivity characteristics showcased exceptional hydraulic and deformation characteristics and demonstrated remarkable resilience even under the influence of an imposed surcharge load. Consequently, rigorous seepage and stability analyses were performed, yielding outcomes in consonance with the observations from the centrifuge experiments. The integration of hybrid GRSW with the drainage layer behind the facing experienced considerably low pore water pressures and high safety factors, even following exposure to a 30-day antecedent rainfall.

Geosynthetic-reinforced soil (GRS) walls built on hillslopes are more increasingly incorporated with geocomposite side drain in order to prevent the side-seepage entering the fill. This study evaluates the long-term moisture, pore-water pressure, and shear modulus, of a 6.5 m-high geogrid-reinforced soil wall in western Thailand. Through extensive field monitoring and in-situ spectral analysis of surface wave (SASW) tests, conducted during the Years 2018-2019, as well as laboratory tests, several key findings emerge. Free-free resonant frequency (FFR) testing of non-reinforced samples reveals the role of soil wetting and drying history and hysteresis in the stiffness-moisture relationship. In-situ pore-water pressure was found to be highest below the road surface near the wall face, decreasing with depth due to underdrainage, with values ranging from -27 to 5 kPa. The inter of the side drainage board with the underdrain bottom layer shows the highest water content. In-situ and laboratory-derived soil-water retention curve (SWRC) were found to differ at greater depths. In unsaturated conditions, the in-situ small strain modulus of GRS appeared insensitive to suction stress below 10 kPa but was slightly affected under positive pore-water pressure, with multiple linear regression modeling indicating a dependency of stiffness on depth and pore-water pressure.

This paper presents a case study on instrumenting, monitoring, and finite element modeling (FEM) of geosynthetic-reinforced pile-supported (GRPS) mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) walls. The GRPS-MSE wall was monitored using various instruments such as piezometers, earth pressure cells, shape-acceleration arrays (SAAs), and strain gauges. The performance criteria included efficacy, stress concentration ratio (SCR), differential settlement, and reinforcement tension. Collected data, such as excess pore-water pressures, contact pressures on pile and soft soil, differential settlements, and lateral displacement of MSE wall, were analyzed thoroughly. A 3D FEM was also developed to simulate the GRPS MSE wall, and the results are in good agreement with field data. The results demonstrated significant load transfer from soil to piles as a result of soil arching, yielding 30-32 SCR. The field efficacy was measured at 37.69 %, while the FEM efficacy was estimated as 42.4. Strains in geogrids within the geosynthetic-reinforced load transfer platform (GLTP) system were under 1%, less than the 5% maximum recommended by FHWA. The maximum differential settlement measured between pile cap and soft soil from SAAs is 7.1 mm, while it is estimated to be 8.3 mm from FEM. The MSE wall exhibited low lateral displacement (<25 mm), indicating enhanced stability because of GLTP. The comparison between five analytical GLTP design methods showed that the CUR226 methods gave the closest results to field measurements and FEM results. This study offers crucial insights into leveraging GLTP and MSE walls in highway construction.

The technology of geosynthetic mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) walls can help solve classical geotechnical earth retaining wall problems. It can also contribute to achieving the new required performance for infrastructures, such as reliance and sustainability. To further develop this technology, it is essential to analyze the history of its progress. This study summarizes the state-of-the-art research on the mechanical and soil interaction properties of geosynthetics, physical modeling and in situ measurements, analytical and numerical modeling, and reliability analyses by reviewing approximately 728 papers published in well-known international journals in this field and some notable conference paper contributions during the period of approximately 50 years from 1972 to 2023. The latest analytical methods, such as risk-based life cycle cost and CO2 emission assessments and damage/failure predictions, are introduced to evaluate the resilience and sustainability performance of geosynthetic MSE walls. Finally, the prospects of a seismic isolation technique with new types of geosynthetics and life cycle management using a long-term sensor for geosynthetic MSE walls are discussed.

The geogrid flexible reinforced soil wall is widely used in engineering practice. However, a more comprehensive understanding of the dynamic behavior of reinforced soil wall is still required for a more reasonable application. In order to explore the mechanical behavior of a geogrid flexible reinforced soil wall, the model test was carried out to investigate the dynamic deformation of geogrid reinforced soil wall subjected to a repeated load. The numerical simulation was also conducted for comparison and extension with regards to the earth pressure and the reinforcement strain. The change rules for the deformation of the wall face, the vertical earth pressure and the reinforcement strain subjected to dynamic load with four frequencies (4, 6, 8 and 10 Hz) and four amplitudes (30-60, 40-80, 50-100 and 60-120 kPa) were obtained. The factors that affect the mechanical behavior of geogrid flexible reinforced soil wall were analyzed. The results show that the dynamic deformation characteristics of reinforced soil wall are affected by the number of vibrations, the amplitude of dynamic load and the frequency of vibration. The maximum lateral displacement of the reinforced soil wall occurs on the third to the fifth layer. With an increase in dynamic load amplitude, the development of dynamic deformation gradually increases, and after a cumulative vibration of 200 x 104 times, the cumulative lateral deformation ratio and the cumulative vertical deformation ratio of the wall face is less than 1%. The vertical earth pressure of geogrid flexible reinforced soil wall increases partially along the length of the reinforcement, and the vertical earth pressure of the third layer is basically unchanged when subjected to a dynamic load. With an increase in vibration number, the change in the reinforcement strain of the third layer is more complex, and the change rules of the reinforcement strain of each layer are different. The reinforcement strain is small, with a maximum value of 0.1%.