United States Department of Transportation
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TRIS Online Accession Number:00941212
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Edition:Final Report
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Abstract:Soil-geosynthetic composites such as those used in Mechanically Stabilized Earth (MSE) retaining walls are experiencing widespread use, particularly in transportation applications. These structures offer substantial economic and, in some cases, performance advantages over traditional options like reinforced concrete walls. Continuing growth in the use of MSE walls, particularly in critical applications such as bridge abutments, is anticipated. The economic advantage of MSE walls is markedly increased if on-site soils are used as the backfill material in the reinforced zone. Ideally, this backfill material is relatively clean (e.g., limited fines content) and cohesionless. Practically, this is not often available on-site. The potential economic benefit of using “lower-quality”, on-site material in MSE retaining wall applications is substantial. Using on-site material would eliminate the time and expense associated with identifying and transporting select fill. An experimental research program investigating soil-geosynthetic interaction was performed at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. To study this composite behavior, the research program employed a large (7’ L by 4’ W by 2’ D) Pullout Box equipped with state-of-the-art electronic instrumentation and data acquisition. The interaction of two “lower quality” Piedmont residual soils (A-2-4 and A-4) with four, representative, geosynthetic reinforcement materials (rigid geogrid, flexible geogrid, high strength geotextile, and medium strength geotextile) was examined through a series of anchorage strength tests. Through these tests, insight into the load versus deformation behavior of the reinforcing materials embedded in Piedmont residuum was obtained. This report describes the test methodology and presents test results.
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