Axial pullout of inextensible inclined reinforcement in reinforced soil wall

Axial pullout of inextensible sheet/strip reinforcement inclined downward to the horizontal at a small inclination ranging from 0 to 10° is studied. The effect of inclined reinforcement in Reinforced Soil (RS wall) is investigated by quantifying the improvement of factor of safety against pullout and the results compared with the factor of safety against pullout of horizontal reinforcement. Analysis is carried out for flat unribbed and ribbed reinforcements. The variations of modified factor of safety against pullout in RS wall is presented for coherent gravity method for a wide range of parameters such as the length of reinforcement, the angle of shearing resistance of the backfill, number of reinforcement layers, the interface friction angle between reinforcement and backfill, and intensity of surcharge. The analysis highlights the advantages of reinforced soil walls with reinforcement oriented marginally downward compared to walls with horizontal reinforcement. As expected, the modified factor of safety against pullout of ribbed reinforcement is larger compared to that for flat unribbed reinforcement.