The paper presents the results of three full-scale tests that were carried out to investigate the influence of transient (cyclic) flooding on the performance of steel strip reinforced soil walls (SSWs).The walls were constructed to a height of 6 m and then flooded and drained to about mid-height in four cycles. The walls were constructed with three different granular soils varying with respect to permeability, fines content and shear
strength. Earth pressures and reinforcement loads were recorded at end of construction and at the end of each flooding cycle prior to draining.
Hence, for the purposes of analysis,the walls were treated as either in a drained or flooded steady state condition.In-situ steel strip pullout tests were alsoperformed.Thewallfacingswereverypermeableandthuspreventedunbalancedhydrostaticandseepageforcesfromdeveloping
during drawdownthatcouldincreasereinforcementstriploadsbeyonddrainedconditionvalues.Theeffectsofsoiltypeonmeasuredloadsatthe
connections andpeaktensileloadslocatedwithinthereinforcedsoilzoneareidentified. Measuredreinforcementtensileloadsatendof
construction andattheendofpeak flood stagesarecomparedtopredictionsusingdifferentanalyticalmodelsforthe(dry)EOCcondition.
Similar comparisonsaremadeusingmeasuredpullouttestresultsandpredictionsusingdifferentpulloutmodels.Implicationsforcurrentdesign
practice andwallperformanceintransient flooding environmentsarereported.