Large-scale pullout testing of a new ‘rooted’ geogrid

A true understanding of soil–geogrid interaction is one of the major parameters in designing reinforced earth structures. Alongside the introduction of a new and simple system consisting of transverse geogrids connected to a base geogrid with a 45° angle, this paper is concerned with the performance of this system, called ‘rooted geogrid’ (R-G), which is tested experimentally on a large-scale in granular soil for the increase in pullout resistance. The pullout test results have shown an 88% increase in soil–reinforcement interaction in the R-G system compared with ordinary geogrids. In other words, the length required by the base geogrid in this system with the same pullout force is almost half that of an ordinary geogrid, which can be considered beneficial to mechanically stabilised earth wall designs facing a space limit in the backfill.