Experimental Investigation of Glass Fiber Reinforced Plastic Profiled Passive Pile Group Behavior

Abstract

Experimental Investigation of Glass Fiber Reinforced Plastic Profiled Passive Pile Group Behavior In this study, the use of glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) profiled passive piles in slope stability is investigated and it is aimed to contribute to the literature as the first model study regarding this topic. A special experimental setup is designed in order to model pile groups subjected to soil movement under its own weight. Soil pressure distributions acting on instrumented GFRP pile groups are examined for various pile spacings. As a result of experiments, it is revealed that the loads acting on piles increase with decreasing pile spacing due to soil arching. Experimentally determined soil pressure distributions are compared with the soil pressure values calculated by analytical methods.