Experimental Investigation on Pullout Behavior of Geosynthetics with Varying Dimension

Abstract

Reinforcement geometry has a major effect on design parameters and stability control of reinforced soil structures. Geosynthetic with varying dimensions may be of interest from both economic and technical viewpoints. To understand this, pullout tests were conducted on four groups of geosynthetic reinforcements including geogrid with varying diameter of added transverse bars, geogrid with varying thickness, geocomposite with varying width, and ordinary geosynthetics. In these tests, poorly graded silica sand was used with 80% relative density. Results of the tests performed on the geosynthetic reinforcements with the same surface area and various geometries reveal that increasing the cross-sectional area in the front part of geosynthetics has greater influence than that of the rear part. This is due to the greater tensile force and displacement at the frontal part of the reinforcements than those at the rear part. Furthermore, by increasing the frontal cross-sectional area of the reinforcements, dilative behavior of the samples was also increased during the pullout tests. It was also observed that in the geocomposite with increasing width, tensile force distribution and displacement at the middle part having head width are greater than those at the sides indicating nonuniform distribution of tensile force in the transverse direction.