As an alternative to classical retaining solutions, as gravity or flexible retaining walls, the reinforced earth retaining structures are successfully used. The interaction between the reinforcement and the soil fill and their failure mode as well, are important issues to take into account for the design of these types of structures and the corresponding calculation methods used for their design. From this point of view, an important element is the shape of the failure surface, considered in the design calculation as: plane, circular, etc., which has an important influence on the tensile forces values within reinforcements. This paper presents a new theoretical method for the calculations of the reinforced earth retaining structures and the corresponding results for failure surface shape and for tensile forces in the reinforcements. Considering the similarities between the theoretical results presented in this paper and the experimental results presented in the specialty bibliography, this method creates the possibilities to design in a more economical way, only by taking into consideration the correct interaction mechanism between the soil and the reinforcements
