Strain rate effects on soil-geosynthetic interaction in fine-grained soil

Geosynthetic reinforced soil method in coarse-grained soils has been widely used in last decades. Two effective factors on soil-geosynthetic interaction are confining stresses and loading rate in clay. In terms of methodology, one pull-out test with four different strain rates, namely 0.75, 1.25, 1.75 and 2.25 mm/min, and three different normal stresses equal to 20, 50 ,and 80 kg have been performed on specimens with dimensions of 30x30x17 cm in the saturated, consolidated condition. The obtained results have demonstrated that activation of geosynthetic strength at contact surface depends on the applied stress. In addition, the increase in normal stress would increase the shear strength at contact surface between clay and geogrid. Moreover, it is concluded that the strain rate increment would increase the shear strength.