Pullout Behavior of Cell-Type Tires in Reinforced Soil Structures

A series of field-scaled pullout tests were carried out to investigate the pullout behavior of cell-type tires in reinforced soil structures. It is difficult to perform laboratory-scale pullout tests due to the size and geometry of the cell-type tires. Therefore it was necessary to perform field tests. The purpose of the field tests carried out in this study was to investigate the effects of surcharge height, effective anchorage length, tires connection materials, and the number of tires on the pullout behavior of cell-type tires. The ultimate tensile strength of cell-type tires was determined for the design and construction of reinforced soil structures. For comparison, pullout testing of the commercially available geocell was also conducted. The pullout resistance of cell-type tire increased with increasing surcharge height, effective anchorage length, and the number of tires. The ultimate pullout resistance of cell-type tires was approximately 1.25 times that of the geocell reinforcement. This difference was mainly due to the high-strength steel wires inside the tires. The pullout resistance normalized by the number of tires and the surcharge height was 4 kN.