ABSTRACT
The pullout mechanism (typically due to friction and bearing) is influenced by the type of reinforcing material and the soil properties. To an extent, the interfacial behaviour of coir geotextiles with the surrounding matrix is affected by the low stiffness of the material. In this study, in order to quantify the soil-coir geotextile interaction, a series of pullout experiments were carried out with geotextiles having different mass density. For a particular normal stress, it was observed that geotextiles with higher mass density exhibit higher shear resistance during pullout. Further, for the coir geotextile having a specific mass density, a better shear mobilization was realized at a particular normal load. In order to predict the soil-coir geotextile interaction behaviour precisely, a three dimensional (3D) numerical model was developed in this study. Using an appropriate constitutive law for the geo-material and contact law for soil-geotextile interface, the numerical model was validated with the experimental results. This numerical model will be helpful in quantifying the extent of shear mobilization under different boundary conditions.
