Stress–Displacement Behavior of PVC Cell Gabion Wall with Geogrid Reinforcement

Abstract

Large volume of scrap tires was being generated and accumulated causing danger to the environment and health problems to the public. Utilization of local available materials like waste tires/drums was cost effective for construction of gabion retaining wall. The aim of present study includes to obtain the deformations of gabion wall after end of the construction and under uniform surcharge loads for various wall face inclinations and reinforcement. Behavior of the gabion walls build using scrap tires/scrap circular MS drums in the field was simulated in the laboratory for constructing retaining walls without and with geogrid using PVC cells. The experimental work was carried out in the laboratory in a steel tank of dimensions 1.44 m × 1.0 m × 1.2 m. Gabion type walls were constructed using PVC pipes of 15 cm diameter and 5.0 cm in height of PVC cells. Poorly graded sand was used as backfill and filling in PVC cells with a relative density of 68% and corresponding unit weight of 18 kN/m3. Dial gauges were used to measure horizontal displacements at different heights from the bottom of the wall. PVC cell wall was constructed with different wall face inclinations 2.5°, 5.0°, and 7.5° to observe the lateral displacements and vertical settlements. A uniform surcharge load was applied on the backfill soil through a solid plate. The wall horizontal displacements were monitored during construction, end of the construction, and after application of surcharge for the mentioned wall face inclinations without and with geogrid reinforcement. The maximum normalized wall displacements of reinforced wall with three and five layers of geogrid at the end of construction were 0.0021 for a height of 0.75H and 0.0019 for a height of 0.67H, respectively. After the application of uniform surcharge load of 15.48 kPa, the normalized displacements were 0.0028 and 0.0023 for three and five layers of reinforced wall for a height of 0.75H, 0.67H, respectively.