Experimental and theoretical studies on deformation characteristics of Geosynthetic-Reinforced Soil (GRS) abutments induced by vertical loads

This study conducted five centrifuge model tests to investigate the deformation characteristics of the Geosynthetics Reinforced Soil (GRS) abutments under vertical loads, considering the setback distance a_b and beam seat width B as two major influencing factors. Test results show that a linear correlation existed between the maximum lateral facing displacements D_L and the maximum settlements at the top of the GRS abutments D_v. The a_b and the B had different effects on the deformation characteristics of the GRS abutments as well as the relationship between the D_L and the D_v. The total volumetric strains of the GRS abutments were smaller than 0.3% for all the cases investigated in this study, indicating that it was reasonable to use the assumption of zero-volume change for the deformation calculation of the GRS abutments. This study proposed an improved semi-empirical method to describe the relationship between the D_L and the D_v. Centrifuge test results and data collected from the literature were used to validate the improved method. It was concluded that the improved method had the advantage of considering the effects of the a_b and the B separately and therefore significantly improved the prediction accuracy of the deformations of the GRS abutments.