Moisture Reduction Factors for Shear Strength of Unsaturated Reinforced Embankments

Abstract

AbstractThis paper describes the construction and testing of six 1-m-high model embankments constructed at three different gravimetric water content (GWC) values to study their performance and to validate a set of moisture reduction factors (MRFs) introduced by the authors in their recent studies. The earlier MRF values were obtained from a series of pullout and interface shear tests on the same soil and reinforcement materials. The MRF in this study is defined as the ratio of soil-reinforcement interface shear strength at an increased GWC value [e.g., optimum moisture content (OMC) + 2%] to the shear strength at OMC − 2% representing construction conditions. Therefore, MRF values can be used to account for an anticipated reduction in the shear strength of the soil-geotextile reinforcement interface caused by wetting in the stability analysis and design of reinforced soil structures constructed with marginal soils. The embankment models were built using a lean clay (CL) at the GWC values ranging between O...