Authors : Adnan Derahman, Mohd Jamaludin Md Noor, Zulhafizal Othman, Nurul Aishah Abd Rahman and Muhammad Isha Ismail
Abstract: Failure in reinforced Earth wall system has been rampant, especially during wet season. The wetting due to infiltration from the ground surface or inundation of the GWT has an adverse effect to the strength interaction between the reinforcement system and the surrounding soil. This is due to the reduction in the shear strength upon the loss of suction when the soil condition changes from unsaturated to fully saturated condition. However, the mishap needs to be resolved by the geotechnical engineers. This study will present on the effectiveness of applying the anchor block at the free end of the reinforcement when the system is wetted. The pullout test has been conducted in a large scale pullout apparatus of dimensions; 2 m length by 1 m width and depth of 1 m. The reinforcement is made up of mild steel reinforcement rod of diameter 33 mm and length of 1.5 m. The anchor block is made of concrete with dimensions of 200-200 mm and thickness of 100 mm. The pullout tests were conducted at various effective and net stresses and initially the strength of the test sand at various effective and net stresses were determined. The results showed that there was a massive increase in the pullout strength when the anchor block was applied and there was a less effect on the drop of the pullout strength upon wetting with the application of the anchor block compared to the non-anchored system.
Adnan Derahman, Mohd Jamaludin Md Noor, Zulhafizal Othman, Nurul Aishah Abd Rahman and Muhammad Isha Ismail, 2019. Large Scale Pullout Machine and Effectiveness of Anchor Block in Stabilising Reinforced Earth Wall under Wetting Condition. Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences, 14: 1034-1044.