Behavior of Two-Tiered Mechanically Stabilized Earth Retaining Wall with Bamboo Reinforcement Under Isolated Footing Load

A numerical analysis was conducted to determine the behavior of a two-tiered MSE wall subjected to an isolated footing load with varying tier offset distances and reinforcement types. A displacement-based footing load was performed to evaluate the wall’s response at the serviceability limit state of the varied design parameters. Moreover, the viability of bamboo reinforcements was determined by comparing how they performed at the allowable and ultimate settlement of the footing against commercially available reinforcements. In terms of serviceability, the bamboo reinforcements were at par with the chosen commercially available reinforcements since none of the bamboo reinforcements yielded from the 1 inch (25 mm) allowable settlement of the footing proving that it can be used as a support for resisting vertical loads from a footing in a two-tier MSE wall. The results suggested that bamboo reinforcements exhibit brittle behavior due to their high tensile modulus but still displayed sufficient performance with regards to allowable settlement and footing settlement before initial reinforcement yielding. Increasing offset distance reduced the reinforcement loads in the lower tier by 12% from no offset to 1.2 m.