Cyclic response of geotextile-reinforced soil

Abstract

Reinforced soils exhibit an improvement in strength and deformation characteristics under monotonic loading conditions, due to the additional "pseudo" confinement caused by the lateral restraint and shear stress mobilization along the soil-inclusion interface. In this paper, the influence of the lateral restraint on the cyclic behavior of the soil is investigated. Experimental results obtained from cyclic triaxial tests on a partially saturated reinforced silt are presented. The reinforcement consists of horizontal discs of woven and non-woven geotextile equally spaced along the specimen. The influence of loading level, geotextile type, reinforcement spacing, and specimen diameter are examined. An analytical procedure to interpret the results, based on the confinement enhancement model, is proposed. In the procedure, the effect of the additional equivalent confinement on both the strength and stiffness of the soil is considered.