Failure mechanisms of steep-faced geosynthetic-reinforced retaining walls subjected to toe scouring

Waterfront structures such as seawalls, dikes, and levees are frequently subjected to scouring at the toe of the slope, leading to deteriorated performance and increased failure potential. To this end, some model reinforced steep-faced slopes consisting of a two-dimensional backfill were brought to failure to explore the failure mechanisms of some geosynthetic-reinforced slopes subjected to simulated toe scouring. Results of model tests indicate that in the case of shallow scouring, a reinforcement length (L) increase from 0.4 to 1.0 H_t (H_t, total height of reinforced walls) significantly increases the tolerance against toe scouring-induced failures. In this case, a local bearing capacity failure of facing is the dominant failure mode. In the case of deep scouring, an increase in L beyond 0.7 H_t provides no additional tolerance against toe scouring because the ultimate state is always associated with a global circular sliding in the unreinforced zone. Experimental values of the lateral pressure coefficient (K_t) converted from the measured reinforcement forces indicate that reinforcement forces consistently increase in response to toe scouring up to the final collapsing state and that the reinforcement forces for L = 1.0 H_t mobilize more effectively than those for L = 0.7 H_t..