Prototype Reinforced Soil Embankment for Reconstruction of US 62 Slope Failure in Chickasha, OK
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2013-05-01
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Abstract:One of the main concerns in internal stability of reinforced soil structures constructed with fine-grained or marginal quality soils is the change in shear strength of the soil-reinforcement interface when the soil gravimetric water content (GWC) increases. This increase can occur during construction or service life of the structure, e.g. due to prolonged precipitation. The resulting loss in the soil matric suction could reduce the interface shear strength leading to serviceability problems or even failure of the reinforced soil structure. In this study, several 3.2 ft-high embankment models were constructed in the laboratory, which were subjected to strip footing loading in plane-strain condition. The embankment models were constructed using a lean clay at the GWC values ranging between OMC-2% and OMC+2% (OMC: Optimum Moisture Content). Each embankment model included a single reinforcement layer which was placed 7 inches below the embankment surface. The location of the reinforcement layer was selected based on preliminary embankment tests and numerical simulations to ensure that it would intercept the failure surface that developed underneath the strip footing near the embankment slope. The reinforcement was a woven geotextile material that had been used earlier by the authors in a series of pullout and interface shear tests on the same soil. The embankments were instrumented to measure the footing load, earth pressure, reinforcement strains and the soil GWC and matric suction values during the tests. A primary objective of the embankment tests was to investigate the influence of the soil as-compacted GWC value on the performance of the model embankments and thereby, validate or make necessary adjustments in the values of the moisture reduction factors (MRF) for reinforced embankment design that the authors had developed based on their prior pullout and interface shear tests.
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