Geosynthetic reinforced soil wall performance under heavy rainfall

Global warming is now considered to be one of the greatest threats to earth. The direct consequence of the temperature increase due to the global warming include a rise in sea levels and a change in the amount and pattern of precipitation. Since the amount pattern of precipitation have of paramount implications to short and long-term performance of geo-structures, geo-engineers should pay attention to the issue of global warming. In this paper, the results of laboratory investigation into the effect of rainfall on the performance of geosynthetic reinforced soil wall (GRSW) are presented. A series of model tests were performed using reduced scale model walls, which were reduced from a full-scale GRS wall according to the similitude law. The model GRSWs were subjected to cycles of wetting and drying process with different rainfall intensties but with a same amount. The results show that the cycles of wetting and drying associated with a heavy rainfall may induce additional wall displacement and reinforcement strains in GRSWs, and that such trends have significant implications to GRSW stability, especially for walls designed with marginal factor of safety in terms of long-term performance.