Effects of Changing Water Level on Stability of Reinforced Earth Marine Wall

One of applications of reinforced earth is in marine works. In this application a reinforced soil wall may be used as a quay wall, wharf structure or a seawall to protect the coastline against wave action. When a reinforced soil wall is used as a seawall, it must be designed to withstand against the marine environment. Changing water level in front of the wall is one of marine parameters, which could affect the stability of the structure. This paper evaluates the effects of changing water level especially saturation and rapid draw down on stability factors of reinforced soil marine wall. For this purpose a model wall was subjected to different cases of changing water level and the amount of safety factors of the wall were computed by a computer program developed by the author. The study shows that the rapid draw down of water table from top of the wall can increase the tensile force in the reinforcement by three times, which inherently decreases the safety factor of the structure.