ALTERNATIVE LIGHTWEIGHT COMPOSITE FACING MEMBERS FOR REINFORCED SOILS

Abstract

Steel reinforced concrete facing members, which are used to fix geosynthetic reinforcements working against tensile forces inside soils and to resist active lateral earth pressures, have certain disadvantages, such as massiveness and corrosion. In addition, the aforementioned conventional panels are not economical since they frequently require maintenance and repair in terms of long term stability. In this study, the utility of alternative composite panels is evaluated with the various arrangement and type of fiber reinforcements and a typical foam concrete. Panel tests and three point bending tests are realized to determine the experimental behavior of steel, carbon fiber (CFRP) and glass fiber reinforced (GFRP) specimens, as well as unreinforced examples. Although CFRP wrapped specimens cannot reach expected levels, samples with GFRP present favorable performance as well as being cheaper. Specimens with mat GFRP enhance both strength and deformation capacities according to the results of axial and lateral deformations under diagonal loading condition. In addition, chopped GFRP applied foam concrete specimens have more strength in terms of bending test results, but CFRP reinforcements increase their displacement capacity.

Keywords

• bending test
• panel test
• foam concrete
• carbon fiber
• glass fiber
• eğilme testi
• panel testi
• köpük beton
• karbon fiber
• cam fiber