Advances in soil reinforcement with geosynthetics: from laboratory tests to design practice

This paper provides an updated overview on the role of geosynthetics with reinforcement function in order to define sustainable development strategies. Considering the extent of the subject, the field will be restricted to some applications, such as geosyntheticreinforced soil (GRS) walls and steep slopes, where the structure is built by alternating layers of compacted soil and polymeric reinforcements wrapped around the face of the structure or connected to the facing (cast-in-place concrete facing or facing assembled with precast concrete blocks or panels). Whether it is intended as execution of laboratory tests on the representative elementary volume or as analysis of the behaviour of instrumented full-scale geosynthetic reinforced soil structures, for this discipline experimentation represented, and it still does, the starting point and the driving force behind the continuous progresses. For these reasons, this paper will be developed starting from results that recent research has produced on the definition of short- and long-term design parameters, both studied in laboratory through large-scale (frequently prototype) test apparatus. The obtained results will be explained by taking into account the interaction mechanisms actually mobilised along the soil-geosynthetic interface. Thereafter, the authors will analyse how these research advances have resulted or could result in advancement in the design practice.