The Use of Scrap Tire Strips to Improve the Pullout Behavior of Geotextiles

Mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) walls have become more popular among the existing options for implementing retaining walls worldwide. Specifically, geotextiles have been used in low-height MSE walls to reduce overall costs and, in some cases, to bring additional advantages as internal drainage, in case of non-woven geotextiles. In contrast, these geosynthetic materials may present relatively large elongation and reduced pullout resistance comparatively to geogrids. The present study proposes a low-cost and environmentally friendly solution for the problems recycling truck scrap tires. A series of pullout tests was performed to evaluate the advantages of using recycled strips of truck scrap tires (385/80/R22.5) as longitudinal members of a non-woven geotextile. Results revealed that adding three longitudinal members (S/H = 3.5) to the non-woven geotextile scrap tire (NGTS) increased the pullout resistance by more than 90% of the ordinary NWGT reinforcement. Using the NGTS reinforcement instead of NWGT also reduced the internal displacements as the scrap tire longitudinal members reduce the necking effect enhancing the geotextile stiffness.