Abstract: In the loess mountainous area, many reinforced soil retaining walls are constructed with corners, unlike linear embankment fill retaining walls, due to new site developments. The upper sections of these walls are more prone to deformation and damage at the corners due to industrial plant (rectangular loads) or road (strip loads) construction, affecting their service life. To investigate the effects of rectangular and strip load types on the corners of folded-angle reinforced earth retaining walls, a physical model with both folded and vertical angles was established to explore soil pressure distribution and wall displacement deformation. The experimental results indicate: (1) A significant difference exists in soil pressure distribution in the transition section between the corner and the straight line of the retaining wall under the two load types. Under rectangular loads, maximum vertical soil pressure occurs at the corner, decreasing towards both ends. In contrast, the retaining wall under strip loads shows no significant fluctuation, only a gradual decrease along the top back of the wall. (2) The horizontal deformation of the reinforced soil retaining wall at the corner section under different loads shows a bulging shape, and the vertical deformation slows down as the load increases to 80 kPa. The macroscopic deformation cracks show a logarithmic spiral shape and are symmetrically distributed along the bisector of the corner angle. The research findings provide a theoretical basis for optimizing the design of reinforced soil retaining walls with similar folded angle structures.

Key words: reinforced soil retaining wall, corner parts, loads, model test, loess