Effect of damage during installation on the mechanical behaviour of a biaxial woven polyester geogrid

This paper reports the results of the assessment of the effect of damage during installation (DDI) on the short-term mechanical behaviour and on the soil-geosynthetics interface strength of a biaxial woven polyester ge-ogrid. This material has been subjected to field damage tests, using two different soils and two compaction energies. To characterize the effect of the damage induced in the mechanical behaviour of geosynthetics, ten-sile tests (short-term behaviour), were carried out, according with the procedures described in EN ISO 10319. Simultaneously a test program was implemented to carry out pullout tests (according with EN 13738) and in-clined plane shear tests (EN ISO 12957-2) to characterize the strength of the soil-geosynthetic interface. The results of the study are presented and analysed. The values of the corresponding reduction factors to consid-erer the effects of DDI are also presented. Finally, the main conclusions are put forward.