Abstract: Geobelt deformation is of significance when making prejudgments on potential failure planes in reinforced structures. A failure plane results from two geobelt failure modes, tensile failure and pullout. In order to investigate the deformation characteristics of geobelts in two failure modes, results from pullout tests on sensor-enabled geobelts (SEGBs) with various lengths in sand are reported here across a range of normal pressures. Self-measurements of SEGB can provide data during the tests regarding distributions of strain, stress, and displacement. Data collected during pullout tests reveal the effects of normal pressures and specimen lengths on failure mode. A critical line considering normal pressure and specimen length is derived to describe the transition between two failure modes, an approach which can be utilized for preliminary predictions of failure mode in pullout tests. Warning criteria established based on critical line and data from the self-measurements of SEGB are proposed for failure mode prediction which can contribute to prejudgments of potential failure plane in geosynthetically reinforced soil structures.

Key words: Geosynthetic; Sensor-enabled geobelt (SEGB); Failure mode; Deformation characteristics; Pullout tests

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