• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2009.03a
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• pp.782-791
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• 2009

This study was carried out the laboratory tests and field plate load test in order to evaluate the reinforcement effect of geocell for road construction. The geocell-reinforced subgrade shows the increment of cohesion and friction angle with comprison of non-reinforced subgrade. In addition, the field plate load test was performed on the geocell-reinforced subgrade to estimate the bearing capacity of soil. The direct shear test was conducted with utilizing a large-scale shear box to evaluate the internal soil friction angle with geocell reinforcement. The number of cells in the geocell system is varied to investigate the effect of soil reinforcement. The theoretical bearing capacity of subgrade soil with and without geocell reinforcement was estimated by using the soil internal friction angle. The field plate load tests were also conducted to estimate the bearing capacity with geocell reinforcement. It is found out that the bearing capacity of geocell-reinforced subgrade gives 2 times higher value than that of unreinforced subgrade soil. In the future, the reinforcement effect of the geocell rigidity and load-balancing effect of the geocells should be evaluated.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2019

This paper proposes a new numerical approach to model geocell reinforced soils, where the geocell is described as membrane elements and the complex interaction between geocell and soil is realized by coupling their degrees of freedom. The effectiveness and robustness of this approach are demonstrated using two examples, i.e., a geocell-reinforced foundation and a large scale retaining wall project. The first example validates the approach against established solutions through a comprehensive parametrical study to understand the influence of geocell on the improvement of bearing capacity of foundations. The study results show that reducing the geocell pocket size has a strong effect on improving the bearing capacity. In addition, when the aspect ratio maintains the same value, the bearing capacity improvement with increasing geocell height is insignificant. Comparing with the field monitoring and measurement in the project, the second example investigates the application of the approach to practical engineering projects. This paper provides a practically feasible and efficient modelling approach, where no explicit interface or contact is required. This allows geocell reinforced soils in large scale project can be effectively modelled where the mechanism for complex geocell-soil interaction can be explicitly observed.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.589-597
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• 2021

The present study evaluates geocell reinforced slope behavior. A three dimensional analysis is carried out to simulate soil and geocell elastoplastic behavior using the finite difference software FLAC3D. In order to investigate the geocell reinforcement effect, the geocell aperture size, thickness, geocell placement condition and soil compaction had been considered as variable parameters. Moreover, a comparison is evaluated between geocell reinforcing system and conventional planar reinforcement. The obtained results showed that the pocket size, thickness and soil compaction have considerable influence on the geocell reinforcement slope performance. Moreover, it was found that the critical sliding surface was bounded by the first geocell reinforcement and the slope stability increases, by increasing the vertical space between geocell layers. In addition, the comparison between geocell and geogrid reinforcement indicates the efficiency of using cellular honeycomb geosynthetic reinforcement.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.641-651
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• 2017

Ground improvement with use of geosynthetic products is globally accepted now. The present paper discusses the improvement in bearing capacity of square footing placed at surface of cohesionless soil reinforced with geocell. Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion has been used in the observations. To study effects of geocell with respect to planar geogrid, model tests were conducted on planar reinforcement also. A comparative study of unreinforced soil and soil reinforced with plane geogrid and geocell has also been made. Numerical analysis results obtained by PLaxis have been compared with those obtained from model tests and were found to be in good agreement. A parametric study revealed the role of length of reinforcement, spacing between layers, placement of reinforcement from top surface etc. on bearing capacity. A design example given in paper illustrates the savings in cost of construction of footing on reinforced sand. The study shows that there is improvement in bearing capacity with respect to unreinforced soil which is of the order of 86%. Similarly settlement reduction is 13.07% for single layer of geocell which for double layers of geocell is 693% and 86.48% respectively. The cost reduction in case of reinforced soil is 35% as compared to unreinforced soil.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 1999.11c
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• pp.129-141
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• 1999

This paper presents the results of plate load test and dynamic load test performed to evaluate the performance of geocell where it is used to reinforce soft subgrade for high-speed railroad. Efficacy of geocell was observed in increase in bearing capacity of subgrade and reduction of thickness of reinforced sub-ballast. Plate load tests were carried out at four different places with varying foundation soil strength as a function of number of geocell layer, type of filler material, thickness of cover soil, and the presence of non-woven geotextile. Dynamic load tests were performed in a laboratory. The test soil chamber consists of, from the bottom, 50 cm thick clayey soil, one layer of geocell filled with crushed stone, 10 cm thick crushed stone cover, reinforced sub-ballast of varying thickness, 35 cm thick ballast. This configuration was determined based on the results of numerical analysis and plate load tests. For each set of the dynamic load tests, loads were applied more than 80,000 times. One layer of geocell underlying a 10 cm thick cover soil led to an increase in bearing capacity three to four times compared to a crushed stone layer of the same thickness substituted for the geocell and cover soil layer. Given the test conditions, the thickness of reinforced sub-ballast can be reduced by approximately 35 cm with the presence of geocell.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.623-636
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• 2023

This study utilized small-scale physical model tests to investigate the impact of different types of geosynthetics, including geocell, planar geotextile, and wraparound geotextile, on the behaviour of strip footings placed on 0.8 m thick soil fills and backfills with a slope angle of 70°. Bearing capacity and settlement of the footing and failure mechanisms are discussed and evaluated. The results revealed that the bearing capacity of footings situated on both unreinforced and reinforced slopes increased with a greater embedment depth of the footing. For settlement ratios below 4%, the geocell reinforcement exhibited significantly higher stiffness, carrying greater loads and experiencing less settlement compared to the planar and wraparound geotextile reinforcements. However, the performance of geocell reinforcement was influenced by the number and length of the geocell layers. Increasing the geocell back length ratio from 0.44 to 0.84 significantly improved the bearing capacity of the footing located at the crest of the reinforced slope. Adequate reinforcement length, particularly for geocell, enhanced the bearing pressure of the footing and increased the stiffness of the slope, resulting in reduced deflections. Increasing the length of reinforcement also led to improved performance of the footing located on wraparound geotextile reinforced slopes. In all reinforcement cases, reducing the vertical spacing between reinforcement layers from 100 mm to 75 mm allowed the slope to withstand much greater loads.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.11-17
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• 2012

This paper presents the results of investigation into bearing capacity of a geocell reinforced load base. In order to analyze variation of bearing capacity of the geocell reinforced road base comparing to without reinforced geocell road base, a series of full-scale tests were performed and measured using FWD (Falling Weight Deflectometer). The results indicate that bearing capacity of geocell (T=1.5 mm) reinforecd road base increase than the unreinforced road base.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.263-281
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• 2013

Geotextiles and geogrids have been in use for several decades in variety of geo-structure applications including foundation of embankments, retaining walls, pavements. Geocells is one such variant in geosynthetic reinforcement of recent years, which provides a three dimensional confinement to the infill material. Although extensive research has been carried on geocell reinforced sand, clay and layered soil subgrades, limited research has been reported on the aggregates/ballast reinforced with geocells. This paper presents the behavior of a railway sleeper subjected to monotonic loading on geocell reinforced aggregates, of size ranging from 20 to 75 mm, overlying soft clay subgrades. Series of tests were conducted in a steel test tank of dimensions $700mm{\times}300mm{\times}700mm$. In addition to the laboratory model tests, numerical simulations were performed using a finite difference code to predict the behavior of geocell reinforced ballast. The results from numerical simulations were compared with the experimental data. The numerical and experimental results manifested the importance that the geocell reinforcement has a significant effect on the ballast behaviour. The results depicted that the stiffness of underlying soft clay subgrade has a significant influence on the behavior of the geocell-aggregate composite material in redistributing the loading system.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.33-40
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• 2009

The laboratory tests and field plate load test were carried out to evaluate the reinforcement effect of geocell for road construction. The geocell-reinforced subgrade shows the increment of cohesion and friction angle with comparison of non-reinforced subgrade. In addition, the field plate load test was performed on the geocell-reinforced subgrade to estimate the bearing capacity of soil. The direct shear test was conducted with utilizing a large-scale shear box to evaluate the internal soil friction angle with geocell reinforcement. The number of cells in the geocell system is varied to investigate the effect of soil reinforcement. The theoretical bearing capacity of subgrade soil with and without geocell reinforcement was estimated by using the soil internal friction angle. The field plate load tests were also conducted to estimate the bearing capacity with geocell reinforcement. It is found out that the bearing capacity of geocell-reinforced subgrade gives 2 times higher value than that of unreinforced subgrade soil. The settlement and the distribution of deformation were also estimated by using the finite element method. The magnitude of settlements on the geocell-reinforced subgrade and unreinforced subgrade are 6.8cm and 1.2cm, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.1-13
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• 2013

This paper presents the results of a laboratory investigation of the porous pavement substructure effect when reinforced with geocell. In order to analyze load carrying capacity of Geocell, a series of 9 reduced-scale laboratory tests was performed, changing the type, thickness, diameter of Geocell. The results of the analyses indicated that the bearing capacity of the reinforced Geocell increases much more than the non-reinforced Geocell and load carrying capacity was considered to be insignificant according to the type of Geocell. It was also found that the most supportive effects appeared as 30 cm in diameter and 1.8mm in thickness.