Interaction between Reinforcing Geosynthetics and Soil-Tire Chip Mixtures

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the mechanical properties of tire chips and soil-tire chip mixtures relevant to geosynthetic-reinforced earthworks. Tests were conducted to evaluate shear strength and pull-out capacity with a woven geotextile and two geogrids. Soil-tire chip mixtures made with clean sand and sandy silt were tested. These properties were then used to assess the potential advantages of using soil-tire chip backfills for geosynthetic-reinforced retaining walls and embankments. The test results show that the geosynthetic pull-out force in tire chip and soil-tire chip backfills increases with displacement—i.e., no peak pull-out force is generally obtained, at least for displacements ≤100 mm. Pull-out interaction coefficients for tire chip backfills are typically greater than 1, whereas for soil-tire chip backfills they typically range between 0.2 and 0.7, even though the pull-out capacity for soil-tire chip backfills is generally similar to or greater than the pull-out capacity in a soil backfill. The higher strength, lower unit weight and good backfill-geosynthetic interaction obtained with soil-tire chip backfills can result in walls requiring less geosynthetic reinforcement than walls backfilled with soil. In addition, embankments can potentially be constructed with steeper slopes and a smaller volume of material when soil-tire chip fill is used, while providing greater resistance against lateral sliding and foundation settlement.