ABSTRACT
Soil nailing has become a common technology for stabilization of slopes and retaining walls. However, its application to stabilize loose fill slopes is seldom as there is a lack of quantitative understanding of the soil-nail interaction in the loose fill. This paper presents a test apparatus for investigating the pullout resistance of nails as a function of vertical pressure, relative compaction and degree of saturation of the loose fill. The test apparatus consists of a large box of length 2.0 m, width 1.6 m and height 1.4 m; two portal frames of length 2.4 m and width 2.0 m; and a pulling device. A row of five nail bars can be accommodated in the box. Preliminary results were also presented on the behavior of steel bars embedded in loose completely decomposed granite fills.
