Effects of shape factor on the shear strength parameters of coarse grained soils reinforced with geogrid

Geogrids are used nowadays to handle a wide range of geotechnical engineering challenges in granular soils. These challenges heavily rely on the interlocking mechanism of the soil and geogrid. However, it is unknown how the shape factors of the soil grains will affect the soil-geogrid interlocking mechanism and how this will affect the variance along the depth. The major objective of this paper is to investigate how the shape factors of the soil grains affect the soil-geogrid interlocking mechanism and how this effect varies in the soil regions above and below the geogrid. Three granular soil samples were obtained for this purpose, and image processing was used to estimate the shape parameters of the grains. After that, these granular soil samples were subjected to large-scale direct shear box and CBR tests. After that, geogrids were positioned at various depths on, beneath, and above the shear surface, and large-scale direct shear box tests were used to look at the soil-geogrid interlocking level along the soil profile. The study's findings revealed that the shear strength rose in proportion to the angularity of the grains. It was observed that the soil sections above and below the geogrid had varying shear strengths. The highest interlocking effect was obtained in the region above the geogrid reinforcement as much as the maximum grain diameter.