In-Soil Tensile Testing of Geosynthetics Using a New Apparatus

Tensile strength of geosynthetics plays an important role in geotechnical engineering. Currently, there were several test apparatuses for the determination of tensile strength. However, outstanding problems associated with these apparatuses, for example, the clamp holding the geosynthetics moved from the soil to the outside and had relative displacement with the sleeve when moving in the sleeve, the interaction between clamp of the apparatus and soil was not be eliminated and could not simulate the in-soil stress condition of geosynthetics in real working state, which led to inaccurate measurement of tensile load of geosynthetics. To overcome these problems, anew tensile test within soil apparatus was developed to test three types of geosynthetics with testing tensile test within soilunder the different confinement and tensile test in air, total 45 tensile tests for the performance of the new tensile test within soilapparatus. Results of the tensile test showed that the confinement was the important factor to improve tensile properties of geosynthetics. Under confinement, the tensile properties of geosynthetics were greater than tensile test in air. The tensile properties of plastic geogrid were better than those of the other two geosynthetics. The data obtained from the tensile test within soil was closer to the real working conditions, which proved the new apparatus is more capable and suitable for determining the tensile properties of geosynthetics than other currently available apparatus. This provides insights into the design of engineering practices.