Field Pullout Tests of Steel Strips in Lightweight Cellular Concrete Backfill

Abstract

Use of lightweight cellular concrete (LCC) as backfill for mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) walls in place of the standard aggregate backfill can reduce foundation soil settlement and lateral earth pressure on the back of the wall facing after construction. However, load transfer between reinforcing steel strips and LCC needs to be understood prior to developing a design method for the LCC MSE wall. In this study, eight field pullout tests of five strips embedded in an LCC wall were conducted. Pullout capacity of steel strips in LCC varied with time for the first 14 days and then became constant, whereas the residual capacity remained approximately constant when the age was greater than 3 days. In addition, the pullout capacity of steel strips did not increase proportionally with the strip length.