Sustainability assessment of geosynthetic reinforced soil walls with polyester reinforcement layers

Abstract

This author accepted manuscript is deposited under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC) licence. This means that anyone may distribute, adapt, and build upon the work for non-commercial purposes, subject to full attribution. If you wish to use this manuscript for commercial purposes, please contact permissions@emerald.com.

The paper is focused on sustainability assessment of idealized geosynthetic reinforced soil walls constructed with polyester reinforcement layers using the MIVES multi-criteria decision-making methodology. Sustainability assessments cover environmental, economic, and social/functional components. In this study, the influence of different facing element types (precast concrete panels, welded wire mesh, and dry-cast concrete blocks) and different backfill materials (high-quality granular material, recycled concrete aggregate, and locally available soils with medium to low fines content) on sustainability rankings is investigated. Overall, no significant differences are observed between facing alternatives. Sustainability assessment scorings with precast concrete panels are slightly more favorable for lower walls, while dry-cast concrete blocks are slightly more favorable for taller walls. The use of locally available soils proved to be the most economic, environmentally friendly, and overall, the most sustainable alternative amongst the backfill soil options investigated, even when these soils have less mechanical strength. Total cost and global warming potential estimation charts for reinforced soil walls of different heights are provided.

The authors wish to acknowledge the support of GECO Industrial (Korea, Rep.), VSL Construction Systems (Spain), the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (DECA) of Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya·BarcelonaTech (UPC) (Spain), and the International Centre for Numerical Methods in Engineering (CIMNE) (Spain) and the funding received from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the “Severo Ochoa Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&D” (CEX2018-000797-S-20-4).

Peer Reviewed

Postprint (author's final draft)