Interaction of lateritic soil and steel grid reinforcement

Laboratory and field pullout tests were carried out to study the interaction of welded steel grid reinforcements embedded in lateritic residual soil backfill. The laboratory pullout tests were conducted on various reinforcement sizes, mesh geometries, normal pressures, and compaction conditions of the backfill material. Field pullout tests were conducted at representative overburden, field-moisture, and density conditions. From the test results, it was found that the longitudinal members yielded frictional resistance from 8 to 15% of the total grid pullout resistance. Thus, the major contribution to the pullout resistance of grid reinforcements consists of the passive resistance mobilized in front of the transverse members. The maximum pullout resistance is shown by a bilinear curve which displayed similarity with the failure envelope from direct shear tests of the backfill material. This bilinear envelope reinforced the previous observation regarding the effect of particle breakage phenomenon inherent to...