Characterization of Frictional Interference in Closely-Spaced Reinforcements in MSE Walls. Final Project Research

摘要

The goal of this research is to characterize frictional performance and possible interference in closely-spaced steel strip reinforcements used in MSE wall construction. The research performed investigated the effect of soil-reinforcement interface behavior on the working stress behavior of tall, single and multi-tiered MSE walls. In order to substantiate the hypothesis of frictional interference, high-quality full-scale experimental data was required. The investigation required the following interrelated research tasks: 1. Characterization of the constitutive behavior a sandy gravel backfill soil and ribbed steel strip reinforcement; 2. Characterization of the soil-reinforcement interface behavior of single steel strip reinforcements using instrumented pull-out tests; and, 3. Characterization of the effect of spacing on the shearing resistance of reinforcements using instrumented multi-strip pull-out tests.