Efficiency of cellular geosynthetics for foundation reinforcement

A numerical simulation of geocell-reinforced foundation beds is reported. The three-dimensional geocells and soil are simulated separately using FLAC^3D Finite Difference software. A single geocell-reinforced soil is modeled and the results compared with those from a laboratory test in the literature. The model is extended to geocell foundation beds. The placement conditions in which the geocell layers have the highest efficiency (highest bearing capacity with the lowest cost) are determined. Also, a comparison is made between the performance of cellular geosynthetic reinforcement and a planar form with the same mass of used material (as two reinforcing systems with similar materials but different behavior mechanisms) to identify the system with the greatest efficiency. The analyses are performed for both sandy and clay beds and their results are compared.     

Investigation of factors influencing behavior of single geocell-reinforced bases under static loading

Geocell, one type of geosynthetics manufactured in the form of three-dimensional interconnected cells, can be used as a reinforcement to improve the behavior of base courses by providing lateral confinement to increase their stiffness and strength and reduce surface permanent-deformation. However, the use of geocells for base reinforcement is hindered by the existing gap between applications and theories. This study experimentally investigated the factors influencing the behavior (stiffness and bearing capacity) of single geocell-reinforced bases including shape, type, embedment, height of geocells, and quality of infill materials. Three of the four types of geocells investigated in this study were made of novel polymeric alloys using a new manufacturing technology. Repeatability and potential scale effects on test results were examined. The test results showed that the geocell placed in a circular shape had a higher stiffness and bearing capacity than that placed in an elliptical shape. The performance of the geocell-reinforced base depended on the elastic modulus of the geocell sheet. The unconfined geocell had a lower stiffness but a higher ultimate load capacity than the confined geocell. The benefit of the geocell was minimized when the infill material, quarry waste with apparent cohesion, was used as compared with the Kansas River sand without apparent cohesion. The single geocell-reinforced base had a lower stiffness and bearing capacity than the multiple geocell-reinforced base.     

Experimental and numerical investigation of the uplift capacity of plate anchors in geocell-reinforced sand

Plate anchors are frequently used to provide resistance against uplift forces. This paper describes the reinforcing effects of a geocell-reinforced soil layer on uplift behavior of anchor plates. The uplift tests were conducted in a test pit at near full-scale on anchor plates with widths between 150 and 300?mm with embedment depths of 1.5–3 times the anchor width for both unreinforced and geocell-reinforced backfill. A single geocell layer with pocket size 110?mm?×?110?mm and height 100?mm, fabricated from non-perforated and nonwoven geotextile, was used. The results show that the peak and residual uplift capacities of anchor models were highest when the geocell layer over the anchor was used, but with increasing anchor size and embedment depth, the benefit of the geocell reinforcement deceases. Peak loads between 130% and 155% of unreinforced conditions were observed when geocell reinforcement was present. Residual loading increased from 75% to 225% that of the unreinforced scenario. The reinforced anchor system could undergo larger upward displacements before peak loading occurred. These improvements may be attributed to the geocell reinforcement distributing stress to a wider area than the unreinforced case during uplift. The breakout factor increases with embedment depth and decreased with increasing anchor width for both unreinforced and reinforced conditions, the latter yielding larger breakout factors. Calibrated numerical modelling demonstrated favorable agreement with experimental observations, providing insight into detailed behavior of the system. For example, surface heave decreased by over 80% when geocell was present because of a much more efficient stress distribution imparted by the presence of the geocell layer.     

不同型式复合地基试验对比分析

基于相似理论,设计并完成了土工格室加筋垫层、砂井、散体材料桩、柔性桩等九组复合地基模型试验,并对其加固效果进行对比分析,分析结果表明：水平加筋垫层的设置可扩散上部荷载,提高复合地基承载力,土工格室的加强效果优于土工格栅;桩体复合地基须考虑群桩效应的影响,其承载能力明显好于加筋垫层复合地基;不同加载范围下桩和土体的承载能力发挥程度不同,单桩加载下桩体承载能力发挥较三桩、七桩加载时大,碎石桩桩顶桩土应力比>碎石桩+土工格栅>碎石桩+土工格室,而柔性桩+土工格室的桩顶桩土应力比>柔性桩+土工格栅>柔性桩;砂井和各种型式的碎石桩复合地基桩底桩土应力比在1左右,各种型式的柔性桩桩底桩土应力比较大,最大达24;软基浅部较深部孔隙水压力大、消散速度快;桩体复合地基孔隙水压力较土工格室复合地基和软土地基小,砂井和碎石桩复合地基的排水速度明显快于柔性桩复合地基。     

Stress-dependent method for calculating the modulus improvement factor in geocell-reinforced soil layers

This paper presents an analytical method for determining the modulus improvement factor (MIF) in geocell-reinforced soil layers. Using a modified version of the hyperbolic soil model as a constitutive model, the method is developed based on the soil-reinforcement interaction relating nonlinear elastic soil behavior to the linear elastic response of the reinforcement. The proposed method, in an original way, explicitly takes into account the geometry of the geocell pocket, effects of soil and geocell-reinforcement stiffness, compaction-induced stresses, soil strength and strain compatibility. The method can be used both analytically and using simple and presented non-dimensional charts. Parametric analyses show that the reinforcement, soil relation and the stresses induced during the compaction procedure are the major factors influencing MIF. An evaluation using data from several laboratory, full-scale and field experiments in works is presented showing good predictive capability of proposed method. An application procedure for calculating MIF is presented.     

Static stability analysis of geocell-reinforced slopes

This paper presents an analytical approach to investigate the stability of geocell-reinforced slopes using the limit equilibrium method (LEM). The so-called Horizontal Slice Method (HSM) is employed to simulate horizontal geocell layers. Each geocell layer acts as a beam providing bending and shear resistance in addition to axial strength. A formula is devised by picking relevant governing equilibrium equations, fitted to the new concept employed exclusively for analysis of geocell-reinforced slopes. Parametric studies are conducted to evaluate the effects of increasing the geocell height and replacing geogrids by geocells with various heights for slopes with different characteristics. The results showed that such actions would reasonably reduce the required tension and length of the reinforcement layers, meaning that the stability condition is improved and the less lengthy reinforcement system is formed. Output values also showed dependency on the slope angle and its material properties.     

Three-dimensional numerical modeling of single geocell-reinforced sand

This paper summarizes the development of a three-dimensional numerical model for analyzing single geocell-reinforced soil. In this model, the infill soil was modeled using the Duncan-Chang model, which can simulate non-linearity and stress-dependency of soil. Geocell was modeled using linearly elastic plate elements, which can carry both bending and membrane stresses. A linear interface stress-strain relationship with a Mohr-Coulomb yield criterion was adopted to model the interface friction between the geocell wall and the soil. By modeling the geocell and the soil separately, the interaction between the soil and the geocell can be accurately simulated. To verify this model, a plate load test was conducted in the laboratory, in which a 12-cm-thick sand layer reinforced by a single geocell was subjected to a vertical load from a circular steel plate. The load-displacement curves and the horizontal tensile strain of the geocell were recorded during the test. A numerical model was created according to the setup of the load test. The numerical results compared reasonably well with the test data.     

Three-dimensional numerical modeling of single geocell-reinforced sand

This paper summarizes the development of a three-dimensional numerical model for analyzing single geocell-reinforced soil. In this model, the infill soil was modeled using the Duncan-Chang model, which can simulate non-linearity and stress-dependency of soil. Geocell was modeled using linearly elastic plate elements, which can carry both bending and membrane stresses. A linear interface stress-strain relationship with a Mohr-Coulomb yield criterion was adopted to model the interface friction between the geocell wall and the soil. By modeling the geocell and the soil separately, the interaction between the soil and the geocell can be accurately simulated. To verify this model, a plate load test was conducted in the laboratory, in which a 12-cm-thick sand layer reinforced by a single geocell was subjected to a vertical load from a circular steel plate. The load-displacement curves and the horizontal tensile strain of the geocell were recorded during the test. A numerical model was created according to the setup of the load test. The numerical results compared reasonably well with the test data.     

土工格室加筋地基承载力研究

土工格室被应用于道路、地基、边坡与渠道的保护以及重力式支挡结构,其中,加筋地基可以通过格室侧壁的限制和摩擦力改善砂、石等填料的工程性质,将土工格室层视为基础的旁侧荷载可提高地基承载力。根据土工格室加筋土体的力学机理,采用极限平衡分析法,利用三角形条块法求作用在三角形刚性楔形体两滑动剪切面上的被动土压力,并考虑了土体与土工格室侧壁相互作用对地基承载力的贡献,提出土工格室加筋软基承载力公式,并采用已有模型试验结果,验证了公式的合理性和正确性。     

新型可视土工拉拔试验仪的研发与应用

研制了一台新型可视自动采集数据的土工拉拔试验装置,可用于多种土工材料和填料作用下的拉拔试验。该装置改进了加载系统和反力系统,实现了拉拔界面的可视与数据采集的自动化,并可量测土工材料不同嵌固长度处的位移,获取土工材料变形值,探索筋土作用过程中筋材受力机理及界面土体位移变化规律。使用新研制的试验装置开展了以砾类粗粒土为填料的格栅拉拔试验,结果表明:上覆荷载增大,土中格栅的应变变小,土体与格栅的界面摩擦和嵌固作用越显著;筋土界面处土体颗粒存在平移及转动两种运动模式,且界面处土体形成稳定的位移集中带。     

Scale effect on the behavior of geocell-reinforced soil

Existing studies confirmed that the response of geocell-reinforced beds is directly affected by contributory factors, including soil's grains, geocell's characteristics, and surface loading geometries. In this paper, a series of plate load tests has been carried out for the further understanding of the behaviour of geocell-reinforced soil. Four different soil grains sizes, two different geocell's opening sizes and three different loading plate sizes were the considered variables. During the tests, the applied loading and soil surface settlements were recorded to evaluate the systems' response. As it was expected, the geocell-reinforced soil exhibited higher bearing capacity than the unreinforced status, up to 524%. The results further focused on the important role of scale effect on the response of reinforced foundations. The optimum nominal cells size of geocells was obtained about 15 times of medium grain size of soil. Also, it was found that in order to obtain the highest reinforcement benefits, the footing's width should be in the range 13–27 (20 in average) times of medium grain size of the backfill. Finally, to provide more stable and reliable geocell-reinforced backfill, it is recommended that the cells size of geocells should be selected smaller than 0.67 times of footing width.     

Comparison of bearing capacity of a strip footing on sand with geocell and with planar forms of geotextile reinforcement

Comprehensive results from laboratory model tests on strip footings supported on the geocell and planar reinforced sand beds with the same characteristics of geotextile are presented. The various parameters studied in this testing program include the reinforcement width, the number of planar layers of geotextile and height of the geocell below the footing base. Contrary to other researches, the performance of the geocell and planar reinforcement is investigated at the range of low to medium settlement level, similar to those of interest in practice. The results show that the efficiency of reinforcement was decreased by increasing the number of the planar reinforcement layers, the height of the geocell reinforcement and the reinforcement width. For the same mass of geotextile material used in the tests at the settlement level of 4%, the maximum improvement in bearing capacity (IF) and percentage reduction in footing settlement (PRS) were obtained as 2.73 and 63% with the provision of geocell, respectively, while these values compare with 1.88 and 47% for the equivalent planar reinforcement. On the whole, the results indicate that, for the same quantity of geotextile material, the geocell reinforcement system behaves much stiffer and carries greater loading and settles less than does the equivalent planar reinforcement system. Therefore, a specified improvement in bearing pressure and footing settlement can be achieved using a lesser quantity of geocell material compared to planar geotextile.     

Response of pavement foundations incorporating both geocells and expanded polystyrene (EPS) geofoam

The suitability of geocell reinforcement in reducing rut depth, surface settlements and/or pavement cracks during service life of the pavements supported on expanded polystyrene (EPS) geofoam blocks is studied using a series of large-scale cyclic plate load tests plus a number of simplified numerical simulations. It was found that the improvement due to provision of geocell constantly increases as the load cycles increase. The rut depths at the pavement surface significantly decrease due to the increased lateral resistance provided by the geocell in the overlying soil layer, and this compensates the lower competency of the underlying EPS geofoam blocks. The efficiency of geocell reinforcement depends on the amplitude of applied pressure: increasing the amplitude of cyclic pressure increasingly exploits the benefits of the geocell reinforcement. During cyclic loading application, geocells can reduce settlement of the pavement surface by up to 41% compared to an unreinforced case – with even greater reduction as the load cycles increase. Employment of geocell reinforcement substantially decreases the rate of increase in the surface settlement during load repetitions. When very low density EPS geofoam (EPS 10) is used, even though accompanied with overlying reinforced soil of 600 mm thickness, the pavement is incapable of tolerating large cyclic pressures (e.g. 550 kPa). In comparison with the unreinforced case, the resilient modulus is increased by geocell reinforcement by 25%, 34% and 53% for overlying soil thicknesses of 600, 500 and 400 mm, respectively. The improvement due to geocell reinforcement was most pronounced when thinner soil layer was used. The verified three-dimensional numerical modelings assisted in further insight regarding the mechanisms involved. The improvement factors obtained in this study allow a designer to choose appropriate values for a geocell reinforced pavement foundation on EPS geofoam.     

考虑填料–土工格室相互作用的加筋路堤力学响应研究

针对有砟轨道加筋路堤计算分析中难以考虑土工格室对碎石填料嵌锁及摩擦作用的现状,在大比尺直剪试验基础上建立考虑填料–格室相互作用的三维计算模型。通过室内模型试验验证该计算的可靠度和优越性,进而系统地分析有/无加筋情况下,填料强度、土工格室刚度及地基压缩性等参数对路堤力学响应的影响。结果表明:土工格室的嵌锁作用使得加筋对路堤响应的影响在其布设层发挥程度更大,该影响通过填料与格室及填料内的摩擦作用向周围传递且不断衰减;填料强度较低或地基较软时能加强土工格室对路堤响应的影响,对于填料内摩擦角为20°和地基变形模量为5 MPa的工况而言,加筋后基床侧向位移峰值分别降低60%和72%,应力峰值亦显著降低且分布区域明显扩大;土工格室弹性模量为0.2~2.5 GPa时,路堤力学响应受其影响较大。     

Effect of reinforcement form on the bearing capacity of square footings on sand

This paper presents the results of laboratory model loading tests and numerical studies carried out on square footings supported on geosynthetic reinforced sand beds. The relative performance of different forms of geosynthetic reinforcement (i.e. geocell, planar layers and randomly distributed mesh elements) in foundation beds is compared; using same quantity of reinforcement in each test. A biaxial geogrid and a geonet are used for reinforcing the sand beds. Geonet is used in two forms of reinforcement, viz. planar layers and geocell, while the biaxial geogrid was used in three forms of reinforcement, viz. planar layers, geocell and randomly distributed mesh elements. Laboratory load tests on unreinforced and reinforced footings are simulated in a numerical model and the results are analyzed to understand the distribution of displacements and stresses below the footing better. Both the experimental and numerical studies demonstrated that the geocell is the most advantageous form of soil reinforcement technique of those investigated, provided there is no rupture of the material during loading. Geogrid used in the form of randomly distributed mesh elements is found to be inferior to the other two forms. Some significant observations on the difference in reinforcement mechanism for different forms of reinforcement are presented in this paper.     

Application of the two-layer system theory to calculate the settlements and vertical stress propagation in soil reinforcement with geocell

This paper presents a methodology for determining the surface settlements of the geocell-reinforced soil layer and the vertical stresses propagated to the foundation subgrade at the layers interface, on the subgrade. Based on the theory of equivalent thicknesses, which is an approximation of the theory of elasticity for layered systems, a generalized equation for determining settlements was proposed in a two-layer system composed of geocell-reinforced soil layer over the subgrade. The equation obtained is dependent only on the relations between the elastic parameters of these two layers, such as the deformation moduli and Poisson's ratio, and geometric parameters, such as geocell layer thickness and loading width,. The proposed equation generated very close results with rigorous solutions of the two-layer system from the theory of elasticity. It was applied, together with rigorous methods, in an instrumented field Plate load test allowing the determination of the geocell-reinforced soil layer modulus of deformation by retro analysis and the vertical stresses propagated to the subgrade. The results showed that the two-layer system theory from theories of elasticity and equivalent thicknesses can be used in a simple and efficient way for determining settlements and the propagation of vertical stresses. The proposed methodology also satisfactorily calculated these results when compared with the rigorous methods and with the values obtained in the field test.     

杆状支护系统的耦合模型及应用

锚杆/锚索等杆状支护系统在土木工程界的应用很广。但到目前为止，杆状支护物与被支护体之间的耦合机理却尚未十分清晰，有关支护效果的可靠合理的评价方法也并未成熟。基于Shear-Lag理论，提出一种改良的计算分析方法来描述杆状支护材料、交界面和被支护体之间的耦合作用机理。分析锚杆拉拔试验中由耦合到破坏的整个过程，提出一个计算交界面其实粘结强度的新方法。普通拉拔试验中，交界面的平均剪切强度低于其真实强度。二者的差别受支护杆的锚固长度和试件材料的物理力学性质的影响。若忽略试件材料的变形模量，可能导致试验的计算值与其实强度之间出现很大的偏差。分析不同变形模量试件体的拉拔试验过程，对于软岩支护中金属体的室内拉拔试验，建议试件材料的变形模量和相应的锚固长度。圆形隧道周边锚杆的受力状态分析表明，锚杆受力后存在拉拔区、中性点和锚固区。中性点的位置不但和隧道的几何尺寸有关，还与岩石的物理力学性质有关．计算结果和实测结果进行了对比，二者较为接近。     

A new apparatus for the study of pullout behaviour of soil-geosynthetic interfaces under sustained load over time

At present, the design of geosynthetic-reinforced soil structures is executed with reference to the tensile strength of the reinforcement obtained from in-air short-term tensile tests, decreasing this value by means of several factors. Among these, the creep effect resulting from in-air tensile creep tests reduces tensile strength the most. Consequently, this procedure does not take into account the effects of soil confinement and interaction on the tensile response of the reinforcements. This paper illustrates a new large-scale pullout prototype apparatus, with the capacity to investigate the behaviour of a geosynthetic reinforcement embedded in a compacted soil and subject to a tensile load kept constant over time. The apparatus allows the verification of how the soil can modify the prediction of the long-term behaviour of geosynthetics. Results in terms of confined tensile strains were analysed, and the comparison of those values with the strains obtained by in-air tensile creep tests has led to the conclusion that the creep reduction factor might be conservative. Moreover, the confined tensile strains were related to the apparent coefficients of friction to propose a new procedure capable of determining the design interaction parameter under long-term pullout load as a function of the allowable reinforcement strains.     

Pullout behavior of a bearing polymeric strap under monotonic and cyclic tensile loads

Soil-reinforcement interaction consists of three factors including frictional resistance, shear strength of the soil and passive resistance. In the ordinary polymeric strap (PS) reinforcement, only frictional resistance contributes to pullout resistance. In this study, in order to develop passive resistance in the soil, a number of angles as transversal elements were attached to PS reinforcement, which is called bearing polymeric strap (BPS). The post-cyclic pullout behaviour of the BPS is evaluated using a large-scale pullout apparatus adopting multistage pullout (MSP) test and one-stage pullout (OSP) test procedures. The results show that a spacing-to-high ratio of angles equal to 3.33 gives the maximum pullout resistance. MSP tests were performed on the BPS with an optimum arrangement to evaluate the influence of various factors including cyclic tensile load amplitude, load frequency and number of load cycles, and also the influence of vertical effective stress on the pullout resistance and the peak apparent coefficient of friction mobilized at the soil-BPS interface. Moreover, for BPS system with a single isolated transverse member, the bearing capacity factor N_q was calculated using equations based on three failure modes and it was found that the N_q calculated in the punching shear failure mode makes the best prediction.