Numerical simulation of pullout response for planar soil reinforcements

This paper presents a series of numerical simulations for laboratory and fi eld pullout tests. A nonlinear differential expression for interface pullou t from simple equilibrium of forces and hyperbolic interface model for shea r displacement variation along the length of the planar reinforcement is ut ilised. Finite difference numerical method and nondimensional expressions a re adopted for wider application. The relative stiffness and relative displ acement parameters are defined and related to the interface pullout interac tion mechanism. A parametric study to develop computer-simulated interface design charts for a practical range of relative stiffness and relative bond resistance is theoretically illustrated. The pullout model is capable of s imulating the responses of inextensible as well as highly extensible planar reinforcements. The model responses compared satisfactorily with the avail able theoretical and experimental pullout test results for steel straps, po lymer strips, geotextiles, geomembranes, nylon geosynthetics, and geogrid r einforcements.