An Experimental and Numerical Investigation of the Bearing Behavior of Geogrid-Wrapped Geotextile Bag Retaining Walls Filled with Cement-Modified Soil

The geotextile bag retaining wall is a reinforced soil retaining structure that has been widely adopted in recent engineering practice; its construction method involves stacking geotextile bags along the slope surface to provide surface load support for the backfill. This structure is characterized by simple construction, low cost, excellent reinforcement performance, and environmental friendliness. However, traditional geotextile bag retaining walls often suffer from drawbacks such as excessive lateral deformation and localized slope instability. Therefore, this study proposes an improved composite retaining wall structure combining soil and geotextile bag systems with geogrid reinforcement; this structure represents an enhancement and optimization of existing geotextile bag support systems; this approach integrates the individual geotextile bags into a unified whole, thereby enhancing the structural bearing capacity. Then, using a simplified shear-strength-reduction scenario in FLAC3D, we analyzed the load-bearing performance of this modified geotextile bag retaining wall under rainfall conditions, offering recommendations for regions with frequent precipitation. It is emphasized that additional slope stabilization measures should be implemented when employing this configuration. The test results indicate that the ultimate bearing capacity varies from 132.09 kPa to 207.47 kPa under different slope ratios with fixed 1 m geogrid reinforcement length. The geogrid-wrapped configuration reduces wall-facing horizontal deformation significantly, and increases its load-bearing capacity.