An analysis of innovative and maintenance free active pre-stressed soil nail with reinforced grout hybrid anchor in the region of Rawang, Malaysia

Steep cut slops along the highways and hillsides closer development projects are generally stabilize using soil nailing method in Malaysia. Soil nail system (i.e., passive and active soil nail systems integrated with tendons pre-stressed) is widely applied to strengthened slopes. However, slope failures occurred observing flaws on the fundamental design. The loss of the pre-stressed tension on the creep behaviour of the nail tendon affects the functionality of the soil nail system. This research has introduced a cylindrical shape reinforced grout hybrid anchor and the objectives is to assess its efficiency at refraining the creep behaviour of the soil. Therefore, laboratory evaluation of the pull-out creep behaviour of the anchor was assessed in a large pull-out box (length: 2 m, σ : 1 m × 1 m). An effective stress of 100 and 200 kPa were applied to the soil in the pull-out box. The creep behaviour was tested at the pull-out tensions of 100 and 200 kN, respectively. Results show that the prestressing force is the main factor affecting the stress and deformation in the soil. The anchor was able to mobilise the tensions of 100 and 200 kN. The load was maintained, and the creep behaviour was monitored. A minimal amount of creep (approximately 1 mm) was observed. This finding presents a good justification showing that, the anchor could resist creep and thus can function as a maintenance free active soil nail system.