Abstract
Field pullout testing of soil nails is identified as the appropriate method for studying the nail-soil interaction and assessing the performance of soil nail walls. The primary objective of this study is to highlight the importance and practical applications of field pullout tests in the design and performance assessment of soil nail walls. Bond strength of soil-nail interface is the essential parameter in the design of soil nail walls. Field pullout tests provide valuable inputs for the selection of appropriate design bond strength. In this paper, a reliability based methodology for the evaluation and selection of appropriate field pullout tests is proposed for the determination of the design bond strength. The proposed methodology is illustrated with reference to the field pullout tests on soil nails conducted at a local site.