It is interesting to note that, the sliding displacement of geogrid-RS RW and geocell-RS RW were
the same each other until a base acceleration value of around 700 gal, after which a larger sliding
displacement of geogrid-RS RW occurred (Fig. 7a). While the overturning angle of geocell-RS RW
was always smaller than that of geogrid-RS RW from a base acceleration value of around 200 gal (Fig.
7b). This is due to the fact that the sliding displacement of wall was mainly induced by the shear
deformation of the subsoil beneath the reinforced backfill, and overturning of the wall was mainly
induced by the shear deformation of the reinforced backfill (Nakajima et al., 2010). In this study, the
subsoil conditions were the same for the two model tests resulting in the same sliding displacement
before initial failure plane were formed (points at A and B shown in Fig. 7a), after which the bottom
layer of reinforcement may restrict the sliding of the wall, which induced different sliding
displacements. On the other hand, the geocell reinforcements may provide larger mobilized resistances
in the reinforced backfill zone, which increased the stability of reinforced backfill, thereby a smaller overturning of the geocell-RS RW occurring compared with geogrid-RS RW.