O.R. Barani - Department of Civil Engineering, K.N. Toosi University of Technology
M. Bahrami - Department of Civil Engineering, K.N. Toosi University of Technology
R. Modaresi - Department of Civil Engineering, K.N. Toosi University of Technology
S.A Sadrnejad - Department of Civil Engineering, K.N. Toosi University of Technology

In this paper, a new simple approach for back analysis of a geogrid-reinforced soil (GRS) wall failure is presented. A new zero thickness cohesive fracture element is utilized to simulate the slip surface behind the GRS wall. This element can simulate displacement discontinuity as well as tractions across the shear band effectively. The numerical results are compared with the measured values from the physical test. The paper demonstrates that the proposed approach can effectively improve the quality of numerical back analysis of the soil failure

Geosynthetic reinforced soil; Retaining wall; Shear band; Cohesive interface element; Failure analysis