Modeling of soil–woven geotextile interface behavior from direct shear test results

Apart from other factors, the performance of geosynthetic reinforced soil structures depends also on the characteristics and behavior of the interface between soil and geosynthetic. Experiments were conducted in a direct shear test apparatus to study the shear force–displacement behavior at the soil–geotextile interface using two differently textured woven geotextiles. Analyzing the data so obtained a non-linear constitutive model has been presented for predicting both the pre-peak and the post-peak interface behavior. The predictions made by the developed model are found to be in good agreement with experimental data obtained from direct shear tests.