• 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.

• 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.9 no.3
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• pp.373-395
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• 2015

Comprehensive results from cyclic plate loading at a diameter of 300 mm supported by layers of geocell are presented. The plate load tests were performed in a test pit measuring $2000{\times}2000mm$ in plane and 700 mm in depth. To simulate half and full traffic loadings, fifteen loading and unloading cycles were applied to the loading plate with amplitudes of 400 and 800 kPa. The optimum embedded depth of the first layer of geocell beneath the loading plate and the optimum vertical spacing of geocell layers, based on plate settlement, are both approximately 0.2 times loading plate diameter. The results show that installation of the geocell layers in the foundation bed, increase the resilient behavior in addition to reduction of accumulated plastic and total settlement of pavement system. Efficiency of geocell reinforcement was decreased by increasing the number of the geocell layers for all applied stress levels and number of cycles of applied loading. The results of the testing reveal the ability of the multiple layers of geocell reinforcement to 'shakedown' to a fully resilient behavior after a period of plastic settlement except when there is little or no reinforcement and the applied cyclic pressure are large. When shakedown response is observed, then both the accumulated plastic settlement prior to a steady-state response being obtained and the resilient settlements thereafter are reduced. The use of four layers of geocell respectively decreases the total and residual plastic settlements about 53% and 63% and increases the resilient settlement 145% compared with the unreinforced case. The inclusion of the geocell layers also reduces the vertical stress transferred down through the pavement by distributing the load over a wider area. For example, at the end of the load cycle of the applied pressure of 800 kPa, the transferred pressure at the depth of 510 mm is reduced about 21.4%, 43.9%, 56.1% for the reinforced bases with one, two, and three layers of geocell, respectively, compared to the stress in the unreinforced bed.

• 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.3 no.2
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• pp.117-130
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• 2011

The methods of design available for geocell-supported embankments are very few. Two of the earlier methods are considered in this paper and a third method is proposed and compared with them. In the first method called slip line method, plastic bearing failure of the soil was assumed and the additional resistance due to geocell layer is calculated using a non-symmetric slip line field in the soft foundation soil. In the second method based on slope stability analysis, general-purpose slope stability program was used to design the geocell mattress of required strength for embankment. In the third method proposed in this paper, geocell reinforcement is designed based on the plane strain finite element analysis of embankments. The geocell layer is modelled as an equivalent composite layer with modified strength and stiffness values. The strength and dimensions of geocell layer is estimated for the required bearing capacity or permissible deformations. These three design methods are compared through a design example. It is observed that the design method based on finite element simulations is most comprehensive because it addresses the issue of permissible deformations and also gives complete stress, deformation and strain behaviour of the embankment under given loading conditions.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.24 no.12
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• pp.19-29
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• 2023

The main problem with roads is that cracks and settlement occur over time due to loads acting from the surface layer. One way to solve this problem is to use Geocell. Geocell can be used for structural reinforcement for erosion prevention, ground stabilization on flat and steep slopes, load bearing, and ground preservation. In this study, analyzed road pavement application cases using Geocell and purpose of this study is to analyze the bearing capacity of a road paving method including Geocell using field tests and LFWD(Light Falling Weight Deflectometer) equipment. In addition, the bearing capacity was compared and analyzed with the existing traditional road pavement method.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.51-59
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• 2003

Loading tests were carried out for model geocell to study the reinforcing effect by variation of tensile strength, cell height, soil density and embedded depth of geocell. From the result, it could be seen that the ultimate bearing capacity of the geocell system was influenced rather by the connection strength than by the tensile strength of geocell material. Bearing capacity increased with the increase of height to width ratio of geocell for the same relative density, strength and embedded depth. And the bearing capacity ratio(BCR) was higher at low relative density of sand than that of high relative density. The increase of bearing capacity was higher at geocell with high tensile strength than that of low tensile strength. And the influence was clear at higher relative density. Also the BCR was higher at shallow embedded depth of geocell. Without consideration of tensile strength of material, the application of bearing capacity formula suggested by Koerner seems not suitable for the special case with low tensile strength of geocell material.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.27-37
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• 2003

In this research stress-strain behavior of composite geocell-soil systems under triaxial condition and the influence of strength due to the presence of geocell were studied. For the research a series of triaxial tests were carried out on sand specimens confined by flexible-walled single rubber cell. The diameter of all rubber cells placed at the center of the soil sample were 50 mm. Three rubber sizes, i.e. 35, 50 and 70 mm height, were applied to the soil specimen and the size of soil specimen was 50 mm in diameter and 100 mm in height. Three different densities of soil were used for the tests. In general, it was observed that the sand specimen develops an apparent cohesion due to the confinement by the geocell. The magnitude of this cohesion seemed to be dependent to the properties of the geocell material. The test results have shown that the geocell material for this research not only develops the apparent cohesion but also increases the angle of friction whereas geosynthetic material in the references showed only the increase of apparent cohesion. From the application of geocell-soil composites to the hyperbolic model, it was recognized that the determination of the peak strength influences the behavior of the geocell-soil composites.