Abstract: It is an important part to determine the deformation and tensile force of geosynthetic reinforcement (GR) in the design of piled embankments, but some simplifications such as the uniform tension and a circular arc or quadratic parabola shape of the deformed GR have been used in the current methods. Under plain strain condition, the equilibrium equations of GR are derived under arbitrarily distributed loads, and it is found that the deformed GR has a circular shape and the uniform tension only if the friction acting on the GR is ignored and the normal load is in uniform distribution. Furthermore, the deformation and tension of GR can't be determined only by using the equilibrium equations due to the imperfection of their boundary conditions. A simple numerical method to determine the deformation and tensile force of GR is presented on the basis of the combination of the equilibrium equations with the deformation consistency (the arc length obtained by the equilibrium equations is equal to that by the tensile force plus its initial length) of GR. The rationality and practicability are validated by the four examples.

Key words: arbitrarily distributed loads, piled embankments, geosynthetic reinforcement, deformation, tensile force, numerical method