A closed-form solution for describing the pullout behavior of reinforcements embedded in soils is presented. The solution shows thatpullout resistance is an explicit function of pullout displacement, reinforcement axial stiffness, interface shear stiffness, and reinforcement length. Laboratory pullout box tests as well as uniaxial tension tests were performed to obtain these parameters. The laboratory results of pullout versus displacement of a geogrid and a geotextile in sand are compared with the assumptions found in the current state of the practice. An example problem involving a geotextile and ageogrid in sand is used to illustrate the interaction among the four variables. The analytical solution shows that the shear stress is not uniform along the length of the reinforcement. The effective reinforcement length at which tension is nonzero is shown to vary with the two stiffness values as well as with the magnitude of the pullout force. Practical applications of this new analytical model are proposed. This paper appears in transportation research record no. 1330, Behavior of jointed rock masses and reinforced soil structures 1991
Abstract