Analysis of geosynthetic reinforced soil structures with orthogonal anisotropy

Reinforced soil with geosynthetics as a composite material represents significant orthogonally anisotropic properties. However, current analytical methods usually treat the soil and reinforcement separately, which is not true of practical situations. Therefore, it is difficult to use these methods to study the real effects of the reinforcement. This paper presents an analytical model based on the theory of elasticity for orthogonally anisotropic materials that can be used in analyzing reinforced soil structures with geosynthetics. The stresses and deformations at any point within the reinforced soil structure can be determined by the proposed model. The capabilities of the model have been illustrated by application to an example problem involving a physical model test of a geosynthetic reinforced soil structure. The results of the model prediction are compared with those obtained from the model tests as well as finite element analysis. It is shown that the results of the analytical solution are in good agreement with those of the physical model tests and the finite element analysis.