Pullout Behavior of Geocell-Reinforced Vertical Plate Anchors under Lateral Loading

Abstract

Vertical plate anchors are being widely used in the construction of earth retaining structures. In the present study, experimental and numerical investigations were carried out to develop an understanding of the behavior of geocell-reinforced vertical plate anchors in sand. The parameters studied include anchor embedment depth, strength of geocell reinforcement, and geocell–soil interface friction angle. It was observed that geocell reinforcement can significantly enhance the anchor capacity, both at shallow and deeper embedment. The unreinforced anchor, at an embedment depth of about seven times its height, tended to reach a critical stage beyond which the load-carrying capacity did not increase much. However, with geocell reinforcement, this limitation was overcome and the pullout capacity continued to increase further. Moreover, a shallow anchor with geocell reinforcement could perform better than the unreinforced anchor placed deeper. The central portion of the geocell mattress close to the anchor plate actively sustains the loading, and the end portions serve in a secondary manner to mobilize passive resistance from the surrounding soil. For better performance improvement, the geocell–soil stiffness ratio should be in the range of 5–30. With increases of the geocell–soil interface friction angle beyond 1.8 times the soil friction angle, further increases in performance improvement tend to be negligible.