SYMPOSIA PAPER Published: 01 January 1993
STP24309S

A New Device for Evaluating Load-Transfer In Geosynthetic Reinforced Soils

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Although geosynthetics are often used in soil reinforcement applications, there are currently no methods for estimating reliably the stresses within the reinforcements at working load levels. This paper summarizes the design of a new laboratory device, referred to as the Automated Plane Strain Reinforcement (APSR) cell, which measures the maximum tensile stress that develops at the center of a single planar inclusion due to shearing of the surrounding soil. The cell can accomodate a wide range of reinforcing materials and can be equiped with additional instrumentation to measure the distribution of strains and/or stresses with inclusions of half-lengths up to 450mm. Test data, obtained for an instrumented steel sheet inclusion embedded in Ticino sand, demonstrate the capabilities of the APSR cell for measuring load-transfer at working load levels. Simple closed form solutions based on shear lag analysis describe accurately the tensile stresses measured in the elastic steel sheet inclusion. The new device provides the capability to compare load-transfer characteristics for different classes of geosynthetic reinforcing materials.

Author Information

Whittle, AJ
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
Larson, DG
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
Germaine, JT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
Abramento, M
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
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Details
Developed by Committee: D35
Pages: 1–15
DOI: 10.1520/STP24309S
ISBN-EB: 978-0-8031-5242-7
ISBN-13: 978-0-8031-1885-0