Bounding Surface Model for Geosynthetic Reinforcements

Abstract

Geosynthetic reinforcements are manufactured from polymers such as polyester, polypropylene, and high-density polyethylene. Compared to metals, they exhibit large plastic strains, and highly nonlinear and hysteretic behaviors under cyclic loading. Most geosynthetic reinforcements do not sustain compression load. Traditional cyclic models with the Masing rule fail to simulate such unique behavior. A 1D bounding surface concept is used to develop a model that considers these unique properties of geogrids. The unique features of the model include nonparallel bounding lines and different loading and unloading hardening parameters. The model was calibrated and compared with the experimental results of two geogrids under monotonic and cyclic loadings with different load amplitudes.