Influence of Reinforcement Geometrical Parameters on Plate Anchor Uplift Capacity

A novel method is introduced in the present research by punching a series of openings into the geotextile (called grid-geotextile) to produce an interlocking mechanism as occurred in geogrid reinforcements. A series of pull-out laboratory model tests were performed in three different gradations of sand beds using polypropylene geotextile reinforcement and grid-geotextile reinforcement consisting of different sizes of aperture of 10 mm x 10 mm, 20 mm x 20 mm, and 30 mm x 30 mm, each having a rib size of 15 mm. Interestingly, based on the type of sand, the test results revealed that the grid-geotextile reinforcements of 20 mm x 20 mm improve the anchor uplift capacity 1.15 to 1.25 times as compared to the geotextile reinforcement, even though the amount of reinforcement and tensile stiffness are 1.32 times and 7.76 times lesser as compared to geotextile reinforcement material. Moreover, the present study highlights the influence of reinforcement geometrical parameters on anchor uplift capacity as compared to reinforcement tensile stiffness and accentuates the optimum ranges of influence parameters to the acquisition of maximum reinforcement benefits. Consequently, simple correlations were developed and presented along with the limits for finding the uplift capacity of geogrid reinforced sand beds with the influencing factors.