• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.23-37
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• 2005

The factors affecting the long-term design strength of geogrid can be classified into factors on creep deformation, installation damage, temperature, chemical degradation and biological degradation. Especially, creep deformation and installation damage are considered as main factors to determine the long-term design strength of geogrid. Current practice in the design of a reinforced soil structures is to calculate the long-term design strength of a geosynthetic reinforcement damaged during installation by multiplying the two partial safety factors, $RF_{ID}$ and $RF_{CR}$. This method assumes that there is no evaluation of synergy effect between installation damage and creep deformation of geogrids. This paper describes the results of a series of experimental study, which are carried out to assess the combined effect of the installation damage and the creep deformation for the long-term design strength of geogrid reinforcements. A series of field tests was carried out to assess installation damage of various geogrids with respect to different fill materials, and then creep tests are conducted to evaluate the creep deformation of both undamaged and damaged geogrids. The results indicated that the tensile strength reduction factors, RF, considering the combined effect between the installation damage and the creep deformation is less than that calculated by the current design method.