Investigation of Soil-Geogrid Interface in Direct Shear test, with Emphasis on the size of Apertures of Geogrid and Different Compaction Degrees of Soil

It has been of great interest among the researchers to investigate the behavior of soil_geogrid interface. Due to the wide use of geogrids between different layers of soil; these investigations are very important. This paper shows the results of experimental tests on soil_geogrid interface. This study conducts a series of large scale direct shear tests to investigate the interface shear strength of granular soil with various degrees of compaction and various sizes of geogrid apertures. The shear stress versus shear displacement curves and peak shear strength are important for evaluating the results. The interactions between soil and geogrid may include the following mechanisms: 1) shear resistance between soil and the surface of the geogrids; 2) internal shear resistance of the soil in the opening area; and 3) passive resistance of the transverse ribs. The value of α was defined to evaluate the effect of geogrid on the shear strength of the soil which is the ratio of geogrid_soil shear strength to internal shear strength of soil. The results showed that a larger degree of compaction reduces the resistance in soil_geogrid interface and shear strength of soil_geogrid interface will be reduced further by reducing the distances of transverse ribs of geogrid.