Experimental and Numerical Analysis of Geogrid-Reinforced Soil Systems

Geosynthetic-reinforced soil technique has been increasingly used in civil engineering practice over the last two decades. Understanding the response of soil reinforcements to pullout loading is considered to be essential to any successful analysis and design of reinforced soil structures. This paper presents the results of a series of experimental investigation supported by numerical analysis to examine the pullout behavior of geogrid reinforcing element under static loading. The purpose of the study is to numerically simulate the response of geosynthetic reinforcement to static pullout loading. Finite element Plaxis software was used to model the mechanical behavior of the interface between geogrid-soil dissimilar materials. The numerical model was calibrated and validated using the experimental data generated during this investigation. The results of this study demonstrate that numerical 3D model can give good predictions of the pullout behavior of geogrid-reinforced soil systems under static loads.