Recent research has shown that a large part of reinforced soil wall damages are attributed to inappropriate performance of their facing elements under static and dynamic loading conditions. Many facing factors such as material quality, construction procedure and quality, facing-reinforcement connec-tion type, drainage conditions, etc., are influencing the stability of reinforced walls.
This paper presents a review and discussion first on the available numerical and laboratory studies in lit-erature. The results of numerical study on a well-instrumented wall are presented next to evaluate the per-formance of common facing types under both service and seismic loads and the results are compared with the criteria and provisions mandated in the codes such as FHWA and AASHTO.
The results show that the facing type is having significant effects on the behavior of the reinforced soil wall and is one of the most important wall stability factors under seismic conditions. Moreover, the trans-fer of forces from reinforcement to the facing elements is very important and inappropriate performance of the load-transfer mechanism can lead to local and subsequently general instabilities. In addition, the re-sults of the facing type effects on facing displacement profile, distribution of reinforcement forces and re-inforced soil zone settlement under both static and dynamic conditions are evaluated and discussed.
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