Pullout behaviour of cellular reinforcements

Reinforcements like bars, strips, textiles and grids are used for the reinforcement of soil walls in the modern era of civil engineering, but the use of cellular type of reinforcements is still under consideration and there is still a need of study the probable use of cellular reinforcement in reinforced soil retaining walls. Pullout test is commonly used to predict actual field pullout behaviour of reinforcements. In this paper, laboratory pullout tests are carried out with different height of cellular reinforcements along with planar sheet reinforcement, under two different normal pressures of 75 kPa and 100 kPa. Dimension optimization analysis for cellular reinforcement is done and longitudinal spacing to height ratio of 3.3 is found as optimum. Finite element method is used to compare the experimental pullout behaviour and found in good accord with the laboratory test results. Experimental results are also compared to the theoretical analysis. It is found that the interference in between transverse member is increasing with increase in height of cellular reinforcement, yet the ultimate pullout resistance is found more with higher reinforcement heights, for spacing to height ratio greater than 3.3.