Experimental Evaluation of the Interaction among Neighboring Reinforcements in Geosynthetic-Reinforced Soils

Abstract

This paper presents and interprets experimental results of soil–reinforcement interaction tests conducted using a new device developed to assess the mechanical interaction among neighboring reinforcements in geosynthetic-reinforced soil masses. Testing involved a soil mass reinforced using three reinforcement layers, one of which was actively tensioned while the two neighboring layers remained passive. The neighboring reinforcement layers received stresses from the tensioned reinforcement through the shear stresses transferred to the intermediate soil medium. In this study, a number of soil–reinforcement interaction tests were conducted with different reinforcement and soil types. Test results indicate that the load conveyed to the neighboring reinforcement increased with increasing tension in the loaded reinforcement layer. The magnitude of load transfer was found to increase with increasing soil–reinforcement interaction. At least for the products used in this study, geogrid reinforcements showed a greater ability to form a composite reinforced soil mass than geotextile reinforcements.