Effect of coverage ratio to pullout behaviour in mechanically stabilized earth walls

Mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) wall type is one of the most popular retaining wall types of all due to their engineering advantages. The internal stability controls of this wall type, is the main difference between it and other conventional retaining wall types. The internal stability controls contain tension and pullout failure modes to be controlled. Steel strip type of reinforcement is broadly used in the design of MSE walls and pullout failure mode is an important aspect to be checked when it comes to this reinforcement type and coverage ratio is one of the governing factors for it. Center to center horizontal spacing and reinforcement width are main components of the coverage ratio. Corrosion is another aspect to be checked when it comes to steel material type and galvanization is commonly used method to postpone the expected corrosion effect, yet cut edge corrosion is often neglected factor due to their negligible reduction effect to tension strength. Nonetheless, cut edge corrosion affects the pullout behaviour as well, although it is relatively little. In this study, a parametric study is conducted on a baseline case in order to investigate the effect of coverage ratio to pullout behaviour of MSE walls reinforced with steel strip reinforcement type. In this regard, Python programming language is used to construct a calculation procedure for design of baseline case, implication of different center-to-center horizontal spacing values and application of strip width with and without cut edge corrosion. Results of the study indicates that, center-to-center horizontal spacing may play a crucial role in failure when it is chosen in critical state. Results has also shown that cut edge corrosion may cause deficiency in reinforcement amount by the end of design life time and it should be taken into consideration at the design stage.