Numerical Study of the Behavior of Back-to-Back Mechanically Stabilized Earth Walls

Back-to-back mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) walls can sustain significant loadings and deformations due to the interaction mechanisms which occur between the backfill material and reinforcement elements. These walls are commonly used in embankments approaching bridges, ramps, and railways. The performance of a reinforced wall depends on numerous factors, including those defining the soil, the reinforcement, and the soil/reinforcement interaction behavior. The focus of this study is to investigate the behavior of back-to-back mechanically stabilized earth walls considering synthetic and metallic strips. A two-dimensional finite difference numerical modeling is considered. The role of the soil friction angle, the distance of the reinforcement elements, the walls’ width to height ratio, and the quality of the soil material are investigated in a parametric study. Their effects on the critical failure surface, shear displacements, wall displacements, and tensile forces on the reinforcements are presented. The interaction between back-to-back reinforced walls strongly depends on the distance between walls and modifies the critical failure surface location.