Bounding surface model for geosynthetic reinforcements

Geosynthetic reinforcements are manufactured from polymers such as polyeste r, polypropylene, and high-density polyethylene. Compared to metals, they e xhibit large plastic strains, and highly nonlinear and hysteretic behaviors under cyclic loading. Most geosynthetic reinforcements do not sustain comp ression load. Traditional cyclic models with the Masing rule fail to simula te such unique behavior. A ID bounding surface concept is used to develop a model that considers these unique properties of geogrids. The unique featu res of the model include nonparallel bounding lines and different loading a nd unloading hardening parameters. The model was calibrated and compared wi th the experimental results of two geogrids under monotonic and cyclic load ings with different load amplitudes.