An approach to pullout resistance determination for wrap-around geotextiles in flood embankments

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Abstract

This study proposes an alternative verification procedure for assessing the pullout resistance of wrap-around geotextiles in flood embankments. The research does not aim to determine the design pullout resistance for practical engineering applications directly, but rather, to evaluate the geotextile pullout force within small-scale physical models intended for conceptual-level analysis. The approach addresses the limitations of standard numerical models in capturing the actual slope failure mechanism. It also accounts for the stabilising effect of geotextile wrapping, which is often insufficiently represented in conventional analyses. The proposed approach integrates physical experiments with analytical and numerical modelling. Small-scale embankment models subjected to seepage-induced hydraulic and slope stability failure were reinforced with wrap-around geotextiles of varying anchorage lengths and wrap-around heights along the downstream toe. The observed stability or failure of the physical models was used to evaluate the analytical formulation. The analytical model is based on a comparative calculation of hydrodynamic force and geotextile pullout force. The analytically derived pullout force was implemented in GeoStudio: SLOPE/W to assess the embankment stability. A comparative assessment of the physical, analytical, and numerical results showed good agreement, confirming the reliability of the proposed verification approach. The developed analytical model, validated through numerical simulations and experimental observations, represents a useful tool for the conceptual evaluation of embankment stability mechanisms.