Mechanical Behavior of Hybrid Soil Nail-Anchor System

Abstract

Prestressed soil-nail system has two reinforcing components: steel bar and PC strands. The steel bar with relatively less elongation yields earlier than PC strands. Thus, yield displacements of these two components should be matched to maximize the design load (capacity) of prestressed soil-nail. To achieve this, PC strands need to be prestressed before applying pullout load. In this study, load transfer mechanisms of soil-nail and prestressed soil-nail were determined based on skin friction theory and load transfer theory. The load transfer was derived analytically based on the assumption that skin friction at the interface was fully mobilized. It was then compared with results from field pullout tests performed to identify in-situ load transfer mechanism. Additionally, optimum prestress level required to maximize the pullout loading capacity was evaluated and compared with those obtained from field tests.