karim Bahari - Ph.D. Student of Geotechnical Engineering Department of Civil Engineering Islamic Azad Unevercity, Rudehen
Neda Nikjoo

Pullout behavior is one of the major phenomena towards the effective design of many agricultural and civil engineering structures such as reinforced-soil, slopes and embankments. It is known that the success of reinforced soil structures depends not only on the types of reinforcements and backfill materials but also on the water content of the soil. In view of this objective, the effect of water content on pullout behavior is carried out by performing a series of pullout tests under varying water content of soil. A comparative study of four water contents of soil, two of which are on the dry-side of optimum and another two are on wet-side of optimum with four normal stress conditions is demonstrated. Based on the analyses of the experimental data, the pullout strength of reinforcement due to the variation of water content of soil is examined. It is concluded that the pullout strength of reinforcement decreased with the increase in the amount of the water content of soil under any normal stress conditions. The paper reports the pullout behavior in the form of stress-displacement relationships those are given in various charts and diagrams as a ready reference to aid in the practical design and constructions of reinforced earth structures.

embankment, water content, geogrid, clayey backfill