Pullout resistance of treadmats for reinforced soil structures

초록

A series of pullout tests were carried out on waste tire treadmats of various weave arrangements, with confining stresses ranging from 9 to 59 kPa approximately, in order to investigate the pullout behavior and to apply the results to the design of treadmat reinforced soil structures. A treadmat reinforcement can be considered as belonging to the extensible type thus progressive failure would develop in every tread. The pullout capacity of a treadmat was found to be generally equal to the sum of capacities of the longitudinal treads, with minor enhancement realized due to the presence of transverse treads. Pullout failures occurred in treadmats under light surcharge and with treadmats with higher material presence per unit area, while breakage failures occurred in treadmats under heavier surcharge and with treadmats with higher ratio of opening. The pullout capacity of a treadmat increased with increasing surcharge height and treadmat stiffness. A pullout test on a commercially available geogrid was also carried out for comparison and the pullout capacity of a treadmat was found higher than that of the comparable geogrid under identical loading conditions, indicating the merit of using the treadmat as an alternative to the chosen geogrid.

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