Current design criteria for geosynthetic-reinforced soil walls are generally based on factored load and resistance norms, for both internal and external stability analyses, which refer to the ultimate limit state. The serviceability limit state is generally overlooked in the design of geosynthetic-reinforced soil walls, especially for those with facing systems that are comparatively flexible, including segmental retaining wall systems. Serviceability limit design is deemed crucial for critical structures or structures where the consequences of significant deflections are important. This paper presents a lateral displacement model for geosynthetic-reinforced soil structures. The model takes a model commonly used in current practice as initial basis; the original model has been used by practitioners merely to obtain preliminary estimates of lateral displacements in reinforced soil structures during construction. Lateral displacement data from several carefully selected free standing walls with surcharge were collected during construction as a function of the corresponding loads (from the successive layers and from surcharge or bridge loads). The collected data were used to empirically develop the lateral displacement model. The refined model presented in this paper accounts for the geometry and global stiffness of reinforced soil walls constructed both with and without surcharge loads.
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