Bottom ash as a backfill material in reinforced soil structures

The paper describes the interface behaviour of bottom ash, obtained from two thermal power plants, and geogrid for possible utilization as a reinforced fill material in reinforced soil structures. Pullout tests were conducted on polyester geogrid embedded in compacted bottom ash samples as per ASTM D6706-01. Locally available natural sand was used as a reference material. The pullout resistance offered by geogrid embedded in bottom ash was almost identical to that in sand. In order to study the influence of placement condition of the material on pullout resistance, test were conducted on uncompacted fill materials. Pullout resistance offered by geogrids embedded in uncompacted specimen reduced by 30–60% than that at the compacted condition.     

Interaction between geogrid reinforcement and tire chip–sand lightweight backfill

This paper deals with the interaction between the geogrid and the tire chip–sand mixture including the determination of the index properties of the backfill materials, the shear strength parameters, the interaction coefficients, and the efficiency of geogrid reinforcements in tire chip–sand backfills. Numerous experiments including index tests, compaction tests, pullout tests, and large-scale direct shear tests were conducted. Saint–Gobain (geogrid A) and Polyfelt (geogrid B) were selected as reinforcing materials. Tire chip–sand mixtures with mixing ratios of 0:100, 30:70, 40:60, and 50:50 by weight were used as fill materials. The test results revealed that the dry unit weight of tire chip–sand mixtures depended more on the sand content, and less on the water content. The mixture at the mixing ratio of 30:70 by weight or 50:50 by volume was found to be the most suitable fill material compared to other mixing ratios. The pullout resistance and the pullout interaction coefficients of geogrid A were slightly higher than those of geogrid B. In contrast, in the direct shear resistance, the direct shear interaction coefficients, and the efficiency values of geogrid B were slightly higher than those of geogrid A. Since geogrid B has the needed uniaxial reinforcement properties and its sufficient interaction characteristics with tire chip–sand mixture, the geogrid B was utilized in this study. The interaction coefficients between the tire chip–sand backfill with 30:70 mixing ratio by weight were found to be 0.71 in pullout mode and 0.92 in direct shear mode for geogrid B.     

Pullout resistance of geogrid and steel reinforcement embedded in lightweight cellular concrete backfill

Lightweight Cellular Concrete (LCC) has been increasingly used as backfill material for retaining walls, ground improvement, and pavements due to its low self-weight, quick installation, and high compressive strength as compared with soils. This paper presents a series of pullout tests performed in the laboratory to investigate the pullout resistance of geogrid (extensible reinforcement) and steel strip (inextensible reinforcement) embedded in LCC. Pullout displacements and pullout forces were monitored using displacement transducers (DT) and a load cell during the pullout process. This study investigated the effects of age, normal stress, fly ash, the presence of a cold joint, and re-pullout on the pullout resistance and calculated the pullout resistance factors F* for geogrid and steel strip embedded in LCC. Test results show that for the geogrid embedded in LCC, the maximum pullout force increased as the normal stress increased. For the steel strip embedded in LCC, the maximum pullout force was independent of the normal stress and increased as the age and the cement to fly ash ratio increased. Test results also show that the presence of a cold joint did not reduce the pullout resistance, while the re-pullout test had lower pullout resistance compared to the original pullout test for the same specimen. The pullout resistance factors F* for steel strips were greater than those for geogrids and these factors decreased as the normal stress increased.     

土工格栅与土相互作用的有限元分析

本文提出了土工格栅在拉拔状态下与土相互作用的有限元分析方法。土对格栅的阻力可用非线性弹簧来模拟，弹簧的非线性特性曲线可通过专门设计的小型拉拔试验槽来测定。简要介绍了威尔士大学按试行的欧洲标准研制的大型土工格栅拉拔试验设备。有限元分析结果与用该设备进行的试验结果有很好的一致性。     

Experimental and numerical analysis of large scale pull out tests conducted on clays reinforced with geogrids encapsulated with coarse material

The pullout test is one of the methods commonly used to study pullout behavior of reinforcements. In the current research, large pullout tests (i.e. 100 × 60 × 60 cm) have been conducted to investigate the possibility of pullout resistance enhancement of clays reinforced with HDPE geogrid embedded in thin layers of sand. Pullout tests on clay–geogrid, sand–geogrid and clay–sand–geogrid samples have been conducted at normal pressures of 25, 50 and 100 kPa. Numerical modeling using finite element method has also been used to assess the adequacy of the box and geogrid sizes to minimize boundary and scale effects. Experimental results show that provision of thin sand layers around the reinforcement substantially enhances pullout resistance of clay soil under monotonic loading conditions and the effectiveness increases with increase in normal pressures. The improvement is more pronounced at higher normal pressures and an optimum sand layer thickness of 8 cm has been determined for maximum enhancement. Results of numerical analysis showed the adequacy of the box and geogrid length adopted as well as a relatively good agreement with experimental results.     

Influence of cyclic tensile loading on pullout resistance of geogrids embedded in a compacted granular soil

This paper deals with some results of a wide experimental research carried out in order to study factors affecting cyclic and post-cyclic pullout behaviour of different geogrids embedded in a granular soil. The new test procedure developed (multistage pullout test) and the relative results are described. In particular, test results obtained using the constant rate of displacement (CRD) and the multistage pullout tests highlighted the influence of the different factors involved in the research (cyclic load amplitude and frequency, vertical confining stress, geogrid tensile stiffness and structure) both on the peak pullout resistance and on the peak apparent coefficient of friction mobilized at the interface.     

Slope stability prediction using ensemble learning techniques: A case study in Yunyang County,Chongqing, China

Slope stability prediction plays a significant role in landslide disaster prevention and mitigation. This study develops an ensemble learning-based method to predict the slope stability by introducing the random forest (RF) and extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost). As an illustration, the proposed approach is applied to the stability prediction of 786 landslide cases in Yunyang County, Chongqing, China. For comparison, the predictive performance of RF, XGBoost, support vector machine (SVM), and logistic regression (LR) is systematically investigated based on the well-established confusion matrix, which contains the known indices of recall rate, precision, and accuracy. Furthermore, the feature importance of the 12 influencing variables is also explored. Results show that the accuracy of the XGBoost and RF for both the training and testing data is superior to that of SVM and LR, revealing the superiority of the ensemble learning models (i.e. XGBoost and RF) in the slope stability prediction of Yunyang County. Among the 12 influencing factors, the profile shape is the most important one. The proposed ensemble learning-based method offers a promising way to rationally capture the slope status. It can be extended to the prediction of slope stability of other landslide-prone areas of interest.     

Reliability analysis of soil-geogrid pullout models in Japan

The paper examines the accuracy of two geogrid pullout capacity models used in Japan (Public Works Research Center-PWRC, 2000a) by comparing measured capacities from a large database of laboratory pullout tests to predicted capacities. One model is the current default model (Model 1) used when project-specific laboratory pullout testing is not available and the other when this data is available (Model 2). The accuracy of the models is quantified using bias statistics where bias is defined as the ratio of measured pullout capacity to predicted value. Bias statistics are also a necessary precursor for reliability-based load and resistance factor design calibration for the ultimate pullout limit state in the internal stability design of geogrid reinforced soil walls. Bias statistics using Model 2 show that pullout predictions are very accurate with negligible scatter. However, the default model is shown to be very conservative on average with large scatter in bias values which also varies with magnitude of predicted pullout capacity. A modified formulation for Model 1 is proposed that has the same number of empirical coefficients as the current expression (i.e. two). The modified formulation gives improved accuracy based on the computed mean and coefficient of variation of bias values, and eliminates the significant model bias that is present for the current model. A final outcome from analysis of all available pullout data is that a factor of safety F=2 is recommended for allowable stress design (ASD) when using the current PWRC default Model 1, and a value of F=1.25 is recommended when using Model 2 with project-specific pullout testing.     

含水量对红黏土中土工格栅拉拔性能影响的试验研究

 通过室内大型拉拔试验设备,对土工格栅在8组不同含水量的红黏土中的拉拔特性进行系统测试。结果发现,土工格栅在黏性填料中主要表现为拔出破坏,含水量对于拉拔力的影响显著,拉拔极限荷载随含水量的增加逐渐降低,在塑限附近趋于一常数,且此时格栅与填料之间的似摩擦因数接近0。格栅的应变分布特征证明含水量的增加导致筋土摩擦力的显著减小。除了影响极限拉拔力,含水量还影响格栅的拉拔过程,它的增加使得格栅应变的线性增长结束后很快达到其极限承载力。     

Effects of transverse members on geogrid pullout behavior considering rigid and flexible top boundaries

Geogrid pullout tests have been regarded as the most direct and effective way to describe the interfacial behavior between geogrid and soil. To investigate the coupled effects of geogrid transverse members and top-loading boundaries on the geogrid-soil interaction, numerical simulations of geogrid pullout tests using the Discrete Element Method (DEM) were carried out in this study. The rigid top boundary was simulated by a rigid wall, while the flexible top boundary was modeled with a string of bonded particles that could rotate and move up and down freely. The coupled effects of geogrid transverse members and top boundary conditions on the geogrid-soil interaction under pullout loads were visualized not only by the force distributions along the geogrids and in the specimens but also by the displacements of soil particles and geogrids. Additionally, the quantitative geogrid force and strain distributions along the geogrids, the lateral force distributions on the front walls, and the vertical displacements of top boundaries also showed the influence of transverse members on the geogrid pullout behavior considering the rigid and flexible top boundaries. The DEM investigation results of this study may provide helpful guidelines for regulating the geogrid pullout test apparatus and methods.     

Geogrid-soil interaction: A new conceptual model and testing apparatus

This paper provides a more realistic representation of the soil-geogrid interface in indirectly activated geogrids. A new testing apparatus is designed using transparent soil that allows an unobstructed observation of the interface to investigate the interaction occurring along the reinforcement. In this investigation, the reinforcement is indirectly activated by the deformations of the surrounding soil. Deformations were determined by digital image correlation (DIC) using a dot pattern attached to the geogrid and a laser speckle plane within the transparent soil. The interaction is derived from relative soil-geogrid displacements, deflections of geogrid transverse members, geogrid strain and force distributions as well as shear stresses acting at the interface. Three zones were identified corresponding to the distinct modes of interaction: pushout, pullout and interlocking, whereby a micro-mechanical conceptual model was validated. The geogrid force reaches its maximum at the intersection of the critical slip plane with the reinforcement. The results indicate that the pushout, pullout and interlocking areas cover 15%, 49% and 36% of the total geogrid length respectively. In this study, a transition area between the pushout and pullout zones was observed where the mobilised interface shear stress increases to a maximum value.     

Experimental studies on inclined pullout behaviour of geosynthetic sheet Vis-À-Vis geogrid - Effect of type of anchor and sand

This paper presents the details of an experimental investigation using large-scale inclined pullout apparatus on sheet geosynthetic and geogrid embedded in run-out, I-type, and L-type anchors. The influence of the type of sand on the behaviour of the sheet and the geogrid is also investigated. The results show that in both the sheet and the geogrid, I-type anchor provides approximately 50% and L-type anchor provides 90% higher pullout force than the run-out anchor. The maximum pullout force increases by more than 20% as the inclination of pullout force increases from 0° to 30° for both the sheet and the geogrid.     

土工格栅纵横肋的筋土承载特性分析

为研究土工格栅纵横肋与砂土的界面受力特性,进行了不同法向压力的格栅拉拔试验,分别设计了横向与纵向剪除横肋的6种拉拔试验工况,研究横肋减少对格栅受力、拉拔阻力峰值和位移及似摩擦系数的影响,并分别对比了整体剪切和刺入剪切破坏模式下的格栅拉拔阻力,揭示格栅筋土界面的相互作用机理。结果表明,随着横肋的减少,格栅拉拔阻力和似摩擦系数不断地变小;横肋沿横向减少的格栅最大拉拔阻力大于横肋沿纵向减少的最大拉拔阻力,完整横肋有助于筋土界面的加筋作用的充分发挥。理论计算格栅界面摩擦力约为18%~19%的试验拉拔阻力,而试验获得的格栅界面摩擦力与试验拉拔阻力的比值为29%~33%,横肋与土体挤压咬合产生的承载力分量占了总拉拔阻力的67%~71%,横肋极大提高了土工格栅的拉拔阻力。     

Displacement and load transfer mechanisms of geogrids under pullout condition

Reinforcing elements embedded within soil mass improve stabilization through a load transfer mechanism between the soil and the reinforcement. Geogrids are a type of geosynthetic frequently used for soil reinforcement, consisting of equally spaced longitudinal and transverse ribs. Under pullout conditions, the longitudinal ribs are responsible for tensile resistance, while transverse ribs contribute to a passive resistance. This paper describes a new analytical model capable of reproducing both load transfer and displacement mechanisms on the geogrid length, under pullout conditions. The model subdivides the geogrid into rheological units, composed by friction/adhesion and spring elements, mounted in line. Friction/adhesion elements respond to the shear component mobilized at the soil–geogrid interface. Spring elements respond to the geogrid's tensile elongation. Model parameters are obtained through tensile strength tests on geogrids and conventional direct shear tests on soil specimens. The need for instrumented pullout tests becomes therefore eliminated. Results predicted from this new model were compared to instrumented pullout test data from two types of geogrids, under various confining stress levels. The results revealed that the new model is capable of reasonably predicting load and displacement distributions along the geogrid.     

影响格栅加筋膨胀土拉拔试验的新因素分析

不少学者开展过土中加筋拉拔试验,受测试仪器所限,大多通过改变填土含水率、厚度(上覆法向压力)、类型(粗、细粒土)及拉拔速度等因素来研究对试验结果的影响,除考虑筋材类型(土工格栅、带、网或布)外,对筋土中另一重要影响因素—筋材的初始张拉状态少有研究。本文采用长沙理工大学自行研发的大型数控拉拔试验系统,发挥其尺寸大、双向气囊加载、消除侧壁摩擦等优势,开展膨胀土中格栅加筋拉拔试验,探究筋材尺寸、初始张拉状态、温度、界面残余强度及拉拔方式等新因素对测试值的影响。结果表明:格栅尺寸有一定影响,尤其宽度影响较大;对最大拉拔力而言,格栅应力释放的影响近8.8%;拉拔方式的影响约12.1%;温度的影响为15.9%;残余强度的影响占23.6%。研究结果可供加筋膨胀土工程设计参考。     

Pullout tests conducted on clay reinforced with geogrid encapsulated in thin layers of sand

The interaction between reinforcement and backfill materials is a significant factor for analysis and design of reinforced earth structures which is simplified as pullout or direct shear resistance. This paper presents the results of pullout tests aimed at studying the interaction of clays reinforced with geogrids embedded in thin layers of sand. Pullout tests were conducted after modification of the large direct shear apparatus. Samples were prepared at optimum moisture content and maximum dry densities obtained from standard Proctor compaction tests. Tests were conducted on clay-geogrid, sand-geogrid and clay-sand-geogrid samples. A unidirectional geogrid with sand layer thicknesses of 6, 10 and 14 mm were used. Results revealed that encapsulating geogrids in thin layers of sand under pullout conditions enhances pullout resistance of reinforced clay. For the clay-sand-geogrid samples an optimum sand layer thickness of 10 mm was determined, resulting in maximum pullout resistance which increased with increasing confining pressure. The optimum sand layer thickness was the same for all the normal pressures investigated. For sandy soils the passive earth pressure offered the most pullout resistance, whereas for clayey soils, it was replaced by frictional resistance. It is anticipated that provision of thin sand layers will provide horizontal drainage preventing pore pressure built up in clay backfills on saturation.     

新型可视土工拉拔试验仪的研发与应用

研制了一台新型可视自动采集数据的土工拉拔试验装置,可用于多种土工材料和填料作用下的拉拔试验。该装置改进了加载系统和反力系统,实现了拉拔界面的可视与数据采集的自动化,并可量测土工材料不同嵌固长度处的位移,获取土工材料变形值,探索筋土作用过程中筋材受力机理及界面土体位移变化规律。使用新研制的试验装置开展了以砾类粗粒土为填料的格栅拉拔试验,结果表明:上覆荷载增大,土中格栅的应变变小,土体与格栅的界面摩擦和嵌固作用越显著;筋土界面处土体颗粒存在平移及转动两种运动模式,且界面处土体形成稳定的位移集中带。     

Investigations on pullout behavior of geogrid-granular trench using CANAsand constitutive model

Experimental and numerical investigations have been carried out on behavior of pullout resistance of embedded circular plate with and without geogrid reinforcement layers in stabilized loose and dense sands using a granular trench.Different parameters have been considered,such as the number of geogrid layers,embedment depth ratio,relative density of soil and height ratio of granular trench.Results showed that,without granular trench,the single layer of geogrid was more effective in enhancing the pullout capacity compared to the multilayer of geogrid reinforcement.Also,increasing the soil density and embedment depth ratio led to an increase in the uplift capacity.When soil was improved with the granular trench,the uplift force significantly increased.The granular trench improved the uplift load in dense sand more,as compared to the same symmetrical plate embedded in loose sand.Although it was observed that,in geogrid-reinforced granular trench condition,the ultimate pullout resistance at failure increased as the number of geogrid layers increased up to the third layer,and the fifth layer had a negligible effect in comparison with the third layer of reinforcement.Finite element analyses with hardening soil model for sand and CANAsand constitutive model for granular trench were conducted to investigate the failure mechanism and the associated rupture surfaces utilized.The response of granular material in the proposed model is an elastoplastic constitutive model derived from the CANAsand model,which uses a non-associated flow rule along with the concept of the state boundary surface possessing a critical and a compact state.It was observed that the granular trench might change the failure mechanism from deep plate to shallow plate as the failure surface can extend to the ground surface.The ultimate uplift capacity of anchor and the variation of surface deformation indicated a close agreement between the experiment and numerical model.     

Experimental study on the L-shaped anchorage capacity of the geogrid by the pullout test

The soil reinforcement by geosynthetics has been extensively applied in covers and liners of landfills. The stability of this structure is especially dependent on the effectiveness of the anchorages holding the geosynthetic sheets. The simple run-out and L-shaped anchorages are the two most commonly used approaches. For increasing the available knowledge of the anchorage system behavior, experimental studies have been conducted. This paper shows the results of the experimental analysis that are based on the results of large-scale pullout apparatus on geogrid embedded in simple run-out and L-shaped anchorage in two modes (fixed length and fixed space). The influence of different geometric parameters of the trench on the behavior of the geogrid is also examined. Based on the results, the values of pullout force were approximately 69% and 196% higher in the case of the fixed length mode and the fixed space mode, in the respective order, compared to the simple run-out anchorage. In the L-shaped anchorage, it is observed that for the initial length (L) constant, the mode is optimized with a small value of the geogrid rear heel length (B) and a greater value of the depth of the buried geogrid (D) when D+B is constant.     

A new approach to evaluate soil-geosynthetic interaction using a novel pullout test apparatus and transparent granular soil

Geosynthetic reinforced soil walls and slopes are now a mature technology in geotechnical engineering. Nevertheless, the mechanisms of soil-geosynthetic interaction are not fully understood for pullout of a geogrid material in the anchorage zone of a reinforced structure. It is also difficult to quantify the interactions between the geogrid and the soil. A new strategy to overcome these difficulties is to use a pullout box with a transparent glass bottom, a transparent soil, and non-contact measurement technology. This paper describes such a pullout box apparatus which is used in combination with a recently developed transparent granular soil. Embedded geogrid specimens are visible through the transparent bottom of the box and the surrounding soil. The displacements of the geogrid and seed (target) particles placed in the transparent soil are tracked using digital images captured by a row of synchronized cameras located below the apparatus. Digital processing is carried out using the Digital Image Correlation (DIC) technique to quantify the in-situ displacement of the geogrid specimen and surrounding soil. The displacements are used to compute continuous longitudinal strain profiles in the geogrid specimen over the duration of each pullout test and relative shear displacements between the geogrid and the soil. Also reported are lessons learned to improve the method of clamping geogrid specimens at the front of the pullout box which are also applicable to conventional pullout box equipment.