Field Pullout Tests of Steel Strips in Lightweight Cellular Concrete Backfill
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 148, Issue 5
Abstract
Use of lightweight cellular concrete (LCC) as backfill for mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) walls in place of the standard aggregate backfill can reduce foundation soil settlement and lateral earth pressure on the back of the wall facing after construction. However, load transfer between reinforcing steel strips and LCC needs to be understood prior to developing a design method for the LCC MSE wall. In this study, eight field pullout tests of five strips embedded in an LCC wall were conducted. Pullout capacity of steel strips in LCC varied with time for the first 14 days and then became constant, whereas the residual capacity remained approximately constant when the age was greater than 3 days. In addition, the pullout capacity of steel strips did not increase proportionally with the strip length.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
This study was supported by the Kansas Department of Transportation, both financially and through their dedicated staff, including James Brennan, Nathan Jeffrees, and Luke Metheny. The authors thank Brad Dolton and Stephen M. Rachford at CEMATRIX Corporate for their help to cast the lightweight cellular concrete onsite. The authors also thank technicians David Woody and Kent Dye at the University of Kansas for their great help to make the device for field pullout tests. Furthermore, Mr. Cameron M. Dupont was greatly appreciated for his help to conduct the field pullout tests.
References
Chang, D. T., F. C. Chang, G. S. Yang, and C. Y. Yan. 2000. “The influence factors study for geogrid pullout test.” In Grips, clamps, clamping techniques, and strain measurement for testing of geosynthetics. West Conshohocken, PA: ASTM. https://doi.org/978-0-8031-5428-5.
Fouad, F. H. 2006. “Cellular concrete.” In Significance of tests and properties of concrete and concrete making materials, edited by J. F. Lamond and J. H. Pielert, 561–569. West Conshohocken, PA: ASTM.
Jayawickrama, P. W., W. D. Lawson, T. A. Wood, and J. G. Surles. 2015. “Pullout resistance factors for steel MSE reinforcements embedded in Gravelly backfill.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng. 141 (2): 04014090. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0001192.
Nambiar, E. K., and K. Ramamurthy. 2006. “Influence of filler type on the properties of foam concrete.” Cem. Concr. Compos. 28 (5): 475–480. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cemconcomp.2005.12.001.
Pradel, D., and B. Tiwari. 2015. “The use of MSE walls backfilled with lightweight cellular concrete in soft ground seismic areas.” In Vol. 1 of Proc., 3rd Int. Conf. of Deep Foundations, 107–114. Mexico, North America: Mexican Society for Geotechnical Engineering.
Rahmaninezhad, S. M., J. Han, and J. I. Kakrasul. 2019. “Stress distribution and pullout responses of extensile and inextensible reinforcement in soil using different normal loading methods.” Geotech. Test. J. 42 (6): 1606–1623. https://doi.org/10.1520/GTJ20180102.
Ramezani, M., J. Vilches, and T. Neitzert. 2013. “Pullout behavior of galvanized steel strip in foam concrete.” Int. J. Adv. Struct. Eng. 5 (1): 24–35. https://doi.org/10.1186/2008-6695-5-24.
Sayadi, A. A., T. J. Vilches, T. R. Neitzert, and G. C. Clifton. 2016. “Effectiveness of foamed concrete density and locking patterns on bond strength of galvanized strip.” Constr. Build. Mater. 115 (Jul): 221–229. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2016.04.047.
Taylor, S., and G. Halsted. 2021. Guide to lightweight cellular concrete for geotechnical applications. Washington, DC: Portland Cement Association.
Tiwari, B., B. Ajmera, R. Maw, R. Cole, D. Villegas, and P. Palmerson. 2017. “Mechanical properties of lightweight cellular concrete for geotechnical applications.” J. Mater. Civ. Eng. 29 (7): 06017007. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)MT.1943-5533.0001885.
Weldu, M. T., J. Han, S. M. Rahmaninezhad, R. L. Parsons, J. I. Kakrasul, and Y. Jiang. 2016. “Effect of aggregate uniformity on pullout resistance of steel strip reinforcement.” Transp. Res. Rec. 2579 (1): 1–7. https://doi.org/10.3141/2579-01.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 5, 2021
Accepted: Jan 25, 2022
Published online: Mar 10, 2022
Published in print: May 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Aug 10, 2022
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.