<p>This study focused on the aeolian sand and fly ash reinforced rigid face retaining wall, aiming to deeply clarify its working performance, reinforcement mechanism and internal failure mode. The research was carried out through a systematic analysis method combining geotechnical centrifugal model test and numerical simulation. The test and simulation results indicated that the lateral displacement of the reinforced soil retaining wall showed a significant decreasing trend, and the reinforcement structure had an obvious effect on improving the stability of the retaining wall in comparison with the unreinforced plain soil retaining wall; moreover, the vertical spacing of the reinforcement layers was negatively correlated with the lateral displacement resistance of the retaining wall — the smaller the spacing (i.e., the denser the distribution of reinforcement layers), the smaller the relative lateral displacement of the retaining wall, and the more prominent the constraint and reinforcement effect of the reinforcement on the retaining wall. At the same time, the high consistency between the numerical simulation results and the centrifugal model test results further verified the core mechanism of the aeolian sand reinforced retaining wall: the reinforcement layer could effectively mobilize and exert the shear strength of the soil in a wider area, thereby improving the overall structural stability. Based on the above research conclusions, this study confirmed that for a 6-meter-high reinforced retaining wall, adopting a vertical spacing of 0.3&#xa0;m for the reinforcement layers could not only ensure excellent reinforcement effect but also take into account engineering economy, making it a practical and reasonable design parameter.</p>