An updated discretization technique to evaluate oblique pullout capacity of inextensible reinforcement

Abstract

Reinforced soil structures such as reinforced soil walls, embankments and slopes being safe, economical, aesthetic and rapid in constructions are gaining popularity. However understanding of actual behavior of these structures at failure still remains unsettled. Present work deals with the internal stability of reinforced soil structures due to pullout of inextensible sheet reinforcement. Kinematics of failure is such that the failure surface intersects the reinforcement obliquely thus causing an oblique pullout of the reinforcement. On the other hand conventional methods of analysis considers only axial pullout of the reinforcement and do not consider complex reinforcement-soil interaction. In this paper, a novel approach is presented for a rational analysis of inextensible sheet reinforcement subjected to an oblique pullout force assuming a linear subgrade response and inextensible sheet reinforcement after taking proper soil-reinforcement interaction into account. An updated dis...