Experimental Evaluation of Engineering Properties of GFRP Screw Anchors for Anchoring Applications
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 28, Issue 7
Abstract
Steel screw anchors (SSAs) have been widely used in geotechnical engineering practice because they are simple in structure and easy to design and construct. The main disadvantage of SSAs is that they rust quickly and are not found to be suitable for permanent structures, unless adequate corrosion protection measures are provided. Anchors made of glass fiber–reinforced plastic (GFRP) are corrosion-resistant material that are light in weight with a higher tensile resistance in comparison with SSAs. For this reason, GFRP anchors have been found to be a good substitute for SSAs during the last two decades. In this paper, details of a newly developed GFRP screw anchor (GFRP-SA) with respect to the physicomechanical, tensile, and creep properties along with its performance both in the laboratory and in field conditions are provided. A specially developed machine that facilitates quick installation of the GFRP-SA is also briefly introduced. In addition, two full-scale field tests that were undertaken to study in situ long-term performance of the GFRP-SAs for anchoring soil slopes (1) in an expansive soil, and (2) in a compacted subgrade soil are presented and discussed. Furthermore, the average pullout resistances of the GFRP-SAs were also determined from field tests. The results of the field studies suggest that GFRP-SAs can be installed with relative ease and they provide adequate resistance against shallow landslide slope failures. The study presented in this paper is encouraging for the use of GFRP-SAs in conventional geotechnical engineering practice for stabilizing slopes in different types of soils.
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Acknowledgments
This paper is a summary of the authors’ research work on GFRP-SAs in the past 10 years, which was successively funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 50979080, 50279036) and Open Research Fund Program of the Key Laboratory of Safety for Geotechnical and Structural Engineering of Hubei Province, China (Grant No. HBKLCIV201209). The authors would like to thank the late professor Zhao Wang at Wuhan University for his innovative ideas and pioneering research works on the GFRP-SA, as well as senior engineers Kai-Ming Chu, Zong-qiang Qiu, Guo-ming Cui, Dong-sen Li, and Bo-Jun Cui for their great contribution to the development of the GFRP-SA, and also Yan-feng Zhuang, Chun-Hong Chen, Chao Liu, Fang Dong, Li-hua Li, Jun-Feng Zhang, and Hong-an Zhou for their participation in the in situ tests, laboratory tests, and data analyses.
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Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 28 • Issue 7 • July 2016
Copyright
© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Mar 13, 2015
Accepted: Aug 31, 2015
Published online: Jan 28, 2016
Discussion open until: Jun 28, 2016
Published in print: Jul 1, 2016
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