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Fig. 1. Slip surface approach for analysis of soil nailed walls 共after FHWA 1996兲

This slip surface approach, with a number of variations 共in-
cluding the incorporation of nail bending effects兲 has been widely
adopted in practice 共e.g., Stocker et al. 1979; Shen et al. 1981;
Juran et al. 1990兲, and has been implemented in a number of
commercially available software programs. These programs cost
typically well over $1,000 共U.S. dollars兲, and are based on the
assumed behavior of the reinforced soil mass, slipping along a
curvilinear or bilinear surface as indicated in Fig. 1.
Two relatively well-documented case studies exist of full-scale
test walls that were intentionally brought to failure. The Amherst
Test Wall 共Sheahan 2000兲, shown in Fig. 3, was built in a stiff
varved clay and was brought to failure by overexcavating under
the existing nail-shotcrete lifts. The failure, monitored using both
inclinometers and surface settlement measurements, was esti-
mated as a relatively steep, linear wedge extending from the wall
base to the ground surface, about 60° to the horizontal. The Clou-
terre Test Wall No. 1 共Plumelle et al. 1990兲 was constructed in
Fontainebleau sand and was intentionally failed using surface
saturation. As shown in Fig. 4共b兲, instrumentation and observa-
tions indicate that the Clouterre wall failure extended back from
the wall a distance of 2 to 4 m. Cracks were observed 2.5 m from
the wall, and significant lateral deformation was measured at 4 m
from the wall, indicating a failure surface that can be approxi-
mated by a plane 60° to 70° to the horizontal extending from the
base of the wall to the ground surface.
These two cases of failed test walls suggest that a wedge-type
analysis for soil nailed walls could be reasonably assumed for
preliminary and/or supplemental analysis calculations. Such an
analysis method could also be implemented in a spreadsheet, thus
allowing practitioners easy access to the method and its results.
Simplified Trial Wedge Analysis for Soil Nailed
Walls
Once the two local tension failure modes of pullout and head
failure have been checked 共refer to FHWA 1996兲, the trial wedge
method can be applied as outlined in the following steps. This

Fig. 2. Assumed tension distribution in soil nail 共after FHWA 1996兲

118 / JOURNAL OF GEOTECHNICAL AND GEOENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING / FEBRUARY 2003

J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 2003, 129(2): 117-124