The writers sincerely thank the discusser for the thorough reading of the paper and for providing insightful observations on the mechanics associated with installation disturbance and pullout behavior of helical soil nails.The discussion enhances the technical understanding of installation-induced effects and draws interesting parallels with screw installation in wood, which help conceptualize the mechanisms involved.The points highlighted, particularly those concerning installation speed, number of helices, and soil density, further reinforce the fundamental mechanisms explored in the original paper.The writers appreciate the discusser's emphasis on the findings from the coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian (CEL) simulations, which identified the disturbed zone to extend approximately 2-3 times the helix diameter.This observation strengthens the recommendation that design approaches should consider the installation-induced modification of soil density and stress states surrounding the helical nails.
Rajagopal et al. (2026) studied this question.