Engineering behaviors of reinforced gabion retaining wall based on laboratory test

In order to study the engineering behaviors of reinforced gabion retaining wall, laboratory model test was carried out. Cyclic load and unload of five levels (0–50, 0–100, 0–50, 0–200 and 0–250 kPa) were imposed. Vertical earth pressure, lateral earth pressure, deformation behaviors of reinforcements, potential failure surface and deformation behaviors of wall face were studied. Results show that vertical earth pressure is less than theoretical value, the ratio of vertical earth pressure to theoretical value increases nearly linearly with increasing load, and the correlation coefficient of regression equation is 0.92 for the second layer and 0.79 for the fifth layer. The distribution of lateral earth pressure along the wall back is nonlinear and it is less than theoretical value especially when the load imposed at the top of retaining wall is large. Therefore, reinforced gabion retaining wall will be in great safety when current method is adopted. The deformation behaviors of reinforcements both in the third layer and the fifth layer are single-peak distributions, and the position of the maximum strain is behind that determined by 0.3H (Here H refers to the height of retaining wall) method or Rankine theory. Lateral deformation of wall face increases with increasing load, and the largest lateral deformation occurs in the fourth layer, which lead to a bulging in the middle of wall face.