Experimental and Coupled Eulerian–Lagrangian Numerical Analyses of the Pullout Behavior of a Bearing Bar Reinforcement System

In recent years, there has been a re-emerging interest in using inextensible reinforcement systems in reinforced earth structures. Regarding the pullout mechanism, optimum arrangements of inextensible reinforcement systems with bearing members are determined primarily via cumbersome large-scale experimental tests. An alternative approach to obtain the optimum arrangement of such reinforcements is numerical analysis. However, a convergent solution cannot be achieved via classical finite-element methods due to contact problems and mesh distortions. Moreover, common constitutive models cannot capture the primary pullout mechanism of inextensible reinforcements with bearing members. This study evaluated the primary pullout mechanism of a novel inextensible reinforcement system with bearing members, called the bearing bar reinforcement system, via large-scale monotonic pullout tests. In addition, the conducted pullout tests were simulated via a coupled Eulerian–Lagrangian (CEL) numerical approach with an advanced constitutive model. The agreement between the experimental and numerical results was good. This indicates that the numerical analysis can capture the main pullout mechanism of a reinforcement with a complex contact problem. The numerical analyses suggest that a spacing-to-height ratio of 10 is the optimal design in the sandy soil utilized in this study, because it ensures no interference between transversal elements.