Three-dimensional physical modeling of load transfer in basal reinforced embankments under differential settlement

This study developed a large-scale laboratory apparatus to evaluate the load transfer behavior of basal reinforced embankment fill because of soil arching and geogrid tensile force. A 3D trapdoor-like test system performed five scaled model tests using analogical soil. The instrumentation system involved multiple earth pressure cells, dial gauges, multipoint settlement gauges, and geogrid strainmeters. Comprehensive measurements were performed to investigate the evolution of soil stress and displacement at specific fill elevations with variations in the area replacement ratio and geogrid stiffness. The critical height of the soil arching was determined to be ～1.1–1.94 times the clear pile spacing based on the soil stress and displacement profiles. The distribution of the geogrid tensile strain between and above the adjacent caps demonstrated that the maximum geogrid strains occur on top of the caps, and the tensioned geogrid effect on the load transfer efficiency was evaluated. The cap size and center-to-center pile spacing affect the pile efficacy more significantly than the stiffness of the geogrid. The measured critical heights of arching, stress concentration ratios, and geogrid strain matched those calculated by several well-recognized analytical methods. This experimental program facilitates the development of arching models that account for differential settlement impact.     

不同车速下高速公路X形桩网复合地基动力特性研究

基于大比例模型试验系统,开展高速公路车辆荷载作用下X形桩网复合地基动力模型试验研究;测试了不同车速作用下桩网复合路基的动力响应,包括路基内部动应力分布、动应力扩散、格栅动应变、格栅累积应变、桩土差异沉降等的变化规律。结果表明,高速和低速状态下,动应力均会在格栅处产生波动,并且高频车速对车辆附加荷载贡献较小;当车速达到高速状态时,格栅的动应变变化较小,路肩处的垫层应力传递系数要小于路基中心处;格栅动应变比与格栅应变增量比存在线性关系,并且格栅的累积变形主要是在低速状态下产生的;车速越快,X形桩身动应力幅值越大,其桩身轴力小于圆形桩。     

静载作用下土工格栅加筋防护埋地管道力学性能的实验研究

 针对土工格栅加筋防护埋地管道开展了静力载荷实验,研究管周填土相对密实度(Dr)、管道埋深(H)、筋材长度(L)和层数(n),以及首层筋材埋深(u)等对埋地管道防护性能的影响。实验结果表明：首层筋材最佳埋深为0.4B(加载板宽),筋材最佳铺设长度为4D(管道外径),筋材层数以3～4层为宜;同等条件下随着Dr持续增加,管道极限承载力增加,加载板沉降相应减少,且二者变化率明显降低,表明管周土相对松散时加筋效果愈加明显;同等条件下管道水平和竖向径向变形均随地表载荷增加而增加,且竖直径向比水平径向变形略大,通过增加筋材层数能显著提高土体刚度,能有效地分散管道上方载荷,为管道提供减载保护;管道外壁监测点环向应变值位于－1.5%～1.0%之间,顶部以压缩变形为主,其两侧45°处为压缩和拉伸变形过渡区,而水平径向以拉伸变形为主;随着Dr增加,管周环向应变减小,且应变的对称性愈加显著,表明因Dr增加引起土体自身刚度增加,能有效地限制管道移动及变形。     

A theoretical strain transfer model between optical fiber sensors and monitored substrates

This study proposed an analytical model to investigate strain transfer mechanism between FBG sensor and measured geogrid. Both geometric and mechanical parameters (bonding length, bonding thickness, bonding width, and Young's modulus) of interaction interface can be taken into account in this model. Both laboratory tensile tests of geogrid and experimental data in published literatures were used to verify the developed model. Validation study shows that the maximum relative error between experimental values and theoretical values is 8.2%, indicating that this theoretical model can be used to reflect geogrid deformation. Parametric study indicates that bonding length, bonding thickness, bonding width, Young's modulus of adhesive layer, and substrate layer have significant influence on strain transfer coefficient. Grey Relational Analysis (GRA) method was used to analyze influencing sensitivity of different parameters. GRA parameter values of bonding width and length are higher than 0.72, indicating that bonding width and bonding length are relatively dominant factors affecting average strain transfer coefficient in comparison with bonding thickness, Young's moduli of substrate and adhesive layers (their related GRA values are all lower than 0.692).     

静动载下筋材变化对加筋土挡墙性能影响分析

为了研究动静荷载下,加筋长度及筋材类型变化对加筋土挡墙工作性能的影响,进行了7种工况下的加筋土挡墙模型试验,对比分析了加筋土挡墙的水平土压力、水平土压力系数、墙面水平位移和加载板竖向沉降及筋材应变等参数的发展规律。试验结果表明:动载下加筋土挡墙筋材应变随着加载时间的增长、加筋长度的减小、位置高度的增加而增大,且顶层筋材应变远远大于其他层;加筋长度及筋材横肋的减少明显降低挡墙的承载性能,格栅横肋减少导致挡墙极限承载力降低18% ,加筋长度减少使面板水平位移最大增大了2.2倍;与静载作用下相比,动载下土工格栅的侧向约束作用及网兜效应能够得到更好地发挥。     

Large-scale tests of pile-supported earth platform with and without geogrid

In recent years, concrete piles, such as cast-in-place piles and precast concrete piles, have been increasingly used to support superstructures and embankments when they are constructed on soft soils. On the top of pile head elevation, a certain thick granular cushion including geosynthetic reinforcement is usually installed to transfer more external load onto the piles through soil arching effect and membrane effect. This technique involving the use of rigid piles, gravel cushion and geosynthetics is usually referred to as geosynthetic-reinforced and pile-supported earth platform. This paper presents two well-instrumented large-scale tests of pile-supported earth platform with and without geogrid reinforcement. The performance of the pile-supported platform with geogrid and its load transfer behavior were investigated and compared with those for the test without geogrid. The validation of the EBGEO (2010) calculation was performed based on the test results. The test results indicate that under lower applied load, the loads carried by the piles in the test with geogrid were close to those in the test without goegrid, while with an increase in external load the loads carried by piles in the test with geogrid increased faster than those in the test without geogrid. The negative skin friction for the test with geogrid was smaller than that for the test without geogrid. Based on the contours of earth pressures on foundation base the maximum earth pressures were distributed along the edge of central cap in the test with geogrid. The minimum earth pressures were on midway subsoil between two caps in both tests. Based on the test results, the efficacy for the test with geogrid was 2.5% greater than that for the test without geogrid at the end of loading. The efficacies predicted by the EBGEO (2010) calculation agreed well with the measured efficacies.     

An experimental evaluation of the behavior of footings on geosynthetic-reinforced sand

This research was performed to investigate the behavior of geosynthetic-reinforced sandy soil foundations and to study the effect of different parameters contributing to their performance using laboratory model tests. The parameters investigated in this study included top layer spacing, number of reinforcement layers, vertical spacing between layers, tensile modulus and type of geosynthetic reinforcement, embedment depth, and shape of footing. The effect of geosynthetic reinforcement on the vertical stress distribution in the sand and the strain distribution along the reinforcement were also investigated. The test results demonstrated the potential benefit of using geosynthetic-reinforced sand foundations. The test results also showed that the reinforcement configuration/layout has a very significant effect on the behavior of reinforced sand foundation. With two or more layers of reinforcement, the settlement can be reduced by 20% at all footing pressure levels. Sand reinforced by the composite of geogrid and geotextile performed better than those reinforced by geogrid or geotextile alone. The inclusion of reinforcement can redistribute the applied footing load to a more uniform pattern, hence reducing the stress concentration, which will result reduced settlement. Finally, the results of model tests were compared with the analytical solution developed by the authors in previous studies; and the analytical solution gave a good predication of the experimental results of footing on geosynthetic reinforced sand.     

Centrifuge tests to investigate global performance of geosynthetic-reinforced pile-supported embankments with side slopes

Three centrifuge model tests were conducted to investigate the influence of the number of geosynthetic layers and the pile clear spacing on the global performance of Geosynthetic-Reinforced Pile-Supported (GRPS) embankments with side slopes constructed on soft soil foundations. This study found that the change of the geogrid number from one to two did not significantly affect the foundation settlement, the geogrid deflection, and the vertical stress at the embankment base. For the GRPS embankment with a single geogrid layer, the geogrid strain distribution at the embankment base showed an “M” shape along the transverse direction with the maximum strain near the embankment shoulder. When two geogrid layers with sand in between were used, the upper and lower layers showed different strain distributions with the maximum strains happening near the embankment shoulder and at the center of the embankment for the upper and lower layers respectively. The strains of the upper geogrid were smaller than those of the lower geogrid. Smaller pile clear spacing reduced the geogrid deflection and the foundation settlement. Despite the change of the pile clear spacing, the progressive development of soil arching with the normalized displacement at the embankment base followed a similar trend without an obvious stress recovery stage.     

Mechanically reinforced granular shoulders on soft subgrade: Laboratory and full scale studies

A recently completed field study in Iowa showed that many granular shoulders overlie clayey subgrade layer with California Bearing Ratio (CBR) value of 10 or less. When subjected to repeated traffic loads, some of these sections develop considerable rutting. Due to costly recurring maintenance and safety concerns, the authors evaluated the use of biaxial geogrids in stabilizing a severely rutted 310 m tests section supported on soft subgrade soils. Monitoring the test section for about one year, demonstrated the application of geogrid as a relatively simple method for improving the shoulder performance. The field test was supplemented with a laboratory testing program, where cyclic loading was used to study the performance of nine granular shoulder models. Each laboratory model simulated a granular shoulder supported on soft subgrade with geogrid reinforcement at the interface between both layers. Based on the research findings, a design chart correlating rut depth and number of load cycles to subgrade CBR was developed. The chart was verified by field and laboratory measurements and used to optimize the granular shoulder design parameters and better predict the performance of granular shoulders.     

Evaluation of tensile load-strain characteristics of geogrids through in-soil tensile tests

This paper evaluates in-soil tensile load-strain characteristics of geogrids with the help of a custom designed and developed in-soil tensile setup in the laboratory. Displacement controlled in-soil tensile tests were carried out to evaluate the effect of normal stress, soil type, and presence of sand-sandwiched layer, on the tensile load-strain characteristics of geogrid. Confinement of geogrid within the soil and application of normal stress were found to increase the mobilized tensile load and secant tensile stiffness of geogrid. Secant stiffness improvement factors were determined to quantify the improvement in tensile load-strain characteristics of geogrid under confinement, on comparison to in-isolation values. Geogrid was observed to exhibit lower secant tensile stiffness when embedded in marginal soil, moist-compacted at wet of optimum. However, the concept of sand-sandwiched geogrid was found to improve the tensile load-strain behaviour of geogrids embedded in marginal soil compacted at wet of optimum.     

Interaction between geogrid reinforcement and tire chip–sand lightweight backfill

This paper deals with the interaction between the geogrid and the tire chip–sand mixture including the determination of the index properties of the backfill materials, the shear strength parameters, the interaction coefficients, and the efficiency of geogrid reinforcements in tire chip–sand backfills. Numerous experiments including index tests, compaction tests, pullout tests, and large-scale direct shear tests were conducted. Saint–Gobain (geogrid A) and Polyfelt (geogrid B) were selected as reinforcing materials. Tire chip–sand mixtures with mixing ratios of 0:100, 30:70, 40:60, and 50:50 by weight were used as fill materials. The test results revealed that the dry unit weight of tire chip–sand mixtures depended more on the sand content, and less on the water content. The mixture at the mixing ratio of 30:70 by weight or 50:50 by volume was found to be the most suitable fill material compared to other mixing ratios. The pullout resistance and the pullout interaction coefficients of geogrid A were slightly higher than those of geogrid B. In contrast, in the direct shear resistance, the direct shear interaction coefficients, and the efficiency values of geogrid B were slightly higher than those of geogrid A. Since geogrid B has the needed uniaxial reinforcement properties and its sufficient interaction characteristics with tire chip–sand mixture, the geogrid B was utilized in this study. The interaction coefficients between the tire chip–sand backfill with 30:70 mixing ratio by weight were found to be 0.71 in pullout mode and 0.92 in direct shear mode for geogrid B.     

Effect of geogrid-reinforcement in granular bases under repeated loading

The thickness of the base plays a crucial role in the stability of pavements and the lack of availability of good quality aggregates is a major concern in India and other countries. Loading on top of the base plays a crucial role in the design of pavements. Usually, the design of the pavement is done for standard axle load, however, in the field, in some of the cases, the vehicles are overloaded which results in a higher wheel load on the pavements. The current paper examines the performance of geogrid reinforced unpaved sections at higher stresses with the primary objective of reducing the thickness of base layer required in the field. Experimental studies were carried out using repeated plate load tests to obtain the optimum depth of placing the geogrid in granular base layer to achieve maximum reduction in rutting of pavement. Resilient deformation behavior of both reinforced and unreinforced sections are obtained and these values are utilized to predict the resilient modulus of the base sections. The paper also discusses the reduction in permanent deformation by the introduction of geogrid. Rut depth reduction studies were carried out in order to compare the performance of reinforced and unreinforced sections. The role played by the reinforcement in reducing the strains on top of the subgrade is studied in detail. A comparison is also carried out to understand the pressure distribution along the base layer and role played by the geogrids in reducing the pressure on the subgrade. Further, values of stress distribution angles were obtained for reinforced and unreinforced sections. It is evident from the studies that geogrids contributed to improved performance as well as reduction in thickness of the aggregate layer.     

Rate-Dependent Load-Strain Behaviour of Geogrid Arranged in Sand Under Plane Strain Compression

A number of previous experimental studies showed that polymer geogrid reinforcement as well as sand exhibit significantly rate-dependent behaviour. The viscous properties of polymer geogrids and Toyoura sand were independently evaluated by changing stepwise the strain rate as well as performing sustained loading and load/stress relaxation tests during otherwise monotonic loading in, respectively, tensile loading tests and drained plane strain compression (PSC) tests. The viscous properties of the two types of material were separately formulated in the same framework of non-linear three-component rheology model. The viscous response of geogrid-reinforced sand in PSC is significant, controlled by viscous properties of geogrid and sand. Local strain distributions in the reinforced sand specimen were evaluated by photogrametric analysis and used to determine the time history of the tensile strain in the geogrid. The time history of tensile load activated in the geogrid during sustained loading of reinforced sand specimen was deduced by analysing the measured time history of geogrid strain by the non-linear three-component model. It was found that the tensile load in the geogrid reinforcement arranged in a sand specimen subjected to fixed boundary loads could decrease with time. In that case, the possibility of creep rupture of geogrid is very low.     

Bearing capacity of strip footings on sand slopes reinforced with geogrid and grid-anchor

This paper presents the effect of a new type of geogrid inclusion on the bearing capacity of a rigid strip footing constructed on a sand slope. A broad series of conditions, including unreinforced cases, was tested by varying parameters such as geogrid type, number of geogrid layers, vertical spacing and depth to topmost layer of geogrid. The results were then analyzed to find both qualitative and quantitative relationships between the bearing capacity and the geogrid parameters. A series of finite element analyses was additionally carried out on a prototype slope and the results were compared with the findings from the laboratory model tests and to complete the results of the model tests. The results show that the bearing capacity of rigid strip footings on sloping ground can be intensively increased by the inclusion of grid-anchor layers in the ground, and that the magnitude of bearing capacity increase depends greatly on the geogrid distribution. It is also shown that the load-settlement behavior and bearing capacity of the rigid footing can be considerably improved by the inclusion of a reinforcing layer at the appropriate location in the fill slope. The agreement between observed and computed results is found to be reasonably good in terms of load-settlement behavior and optimum parameters.     

Viscous Behaviour of Geogrids; Experiment and Simulation

The viscous properties of three types of geogrid polymer were evaluated by sustained loading tests lasting for 30 days at a load level about a half of its nominal rupture strength. The sustained loading tests were performed during otherwise monotonic loading (ML) at constant strain or load rate, unlike the conventional creep tests, in which the strain rate immediately before the start of sustained loading, which controls the creep strain rate, is not controlled or even not recorded. The following are presented in this study. The tensile rupture strength measured by ML that was started following a 30 day-long sustained loading was essentially the same as the one at the same strain rate at rupture obtained by continuous ML without any intermission of sustained loading. This fact indicates that creep is not a degrading phenomenon. Then, if free from chemical and mechanical degrading effects, the strength of a geosynthetic reinforcement (for a given strain rate at rupture) can be maintained until late in its service life. A non-linear three-component model is used to simulate the experimental results from the previous and present studies. The model can simulate very well not only the load-strain behaviour during ML with and without step changes in the strain rate and the one after sustained loading, but also the time histories of creep strain during sustained loading for short (one hour) and long (30 days) periods.     

Large scale tests on geosynthetic reinforced unpaved roads subjected to surface maintenance

Geosynthetic can be effectively used as reinforcement in paved and unpaved roads. This paper presents a study on the use of geosynthetic to reinforce unpaved roads on poor subgrade. A large equipment was used to perform the tests under cyclic loading and a nonwoven geotextile and a geogrid were used as reinforcing layers installed at the fill-subgrade interface. Displacements along the fill surface and stresses and strains in the subgrade were measured during the tests. Three cyclic loading stages were applied in each test up to a rut depth at the fill surface of 25 mm be reached in each stage. At the end of a loading stage the fill surface was repaired for the following loading stage. Monotonic loading tests were also carried out for comparisons. The results obtained show the significant contribution of the presence of the reinforcement layer in increasing the number of load cycles for a given rut depth to be reached and in reducing the stresses and strains in the subgrade, particularly when geogrid reinforcement was used. It was also observed that monotonic loading tests underestimated the contribution from the reinforcement. A simple cost-effectiveness analysis showed that the reduction of maintenance works due to the use of geosynthetic reinforcement may yield to significant savings in this type of problem, seldom considered in the analysis of the economics of this type of application on a routine basis.     

Investigating the effect of geogrid on stabilization of high railway embankments

This paper investigates the effect of geogrid on controlling the stability and settlement of high railway embankments using laboratory testing and finite element modeling. To do this, five series of embankments with 50?cm height were constructed, at a scale of 1:20 and then were uniformly loaded on the crest in a loading chamber in dimensions of 240?×?235?×?220?cm. In this regard, the embankments of the first series were constructed without geogrid reinforcing layers. Following to preliminary numerical simulations for determining the appropriate level of geogrid layers installation, the second to fifth series of embankments were constructed. These embankments were reinforced with one to four layers of geogrid respectively and finally, the results of their load in terms of settlements were compared. In these studies, the reinforced embankments with a single geogrid layer had 7.14% raise in bearing capacity and 11.24% reduction in settlement respectively, in comparison with the unreinforced embankment. The obtained results for the third to fifth series of embankments were respectively in order of (19, 36.14), (26.3, 52.8) and (28.9, 53.42)%. In the next stage, by modeling the embankments in the PLAXIS 2D software, the results were validated by the values obtained through laboratory models. In continuation of the study, real embankments with heights of 5, 10, 15, and 20?m were simulated and placed under LM71 loading pattern (Eurocode, 2003). In this respect, the impact of important effective parameters such as number of geogrid layer, soil characteristics, embankment dimensions, interface coefficient between soil and geogrid and tensile strength of geogrid on bearing capacity and settlement have been studied. The numerical results like the experimental ones, confirmed the increase in bearing capacity and settlement diminishing with definite increase in the geogrid layers, so that more geogrid layers do not affect these parameters. With respect to improving the soil characteristics and reducing the height of embankments, the FEM models showed decreasing effect of geogrid tensile strength on embankment crest settlement. On the other side, the value of geogrid-soil interface coefficient has minor effect on both settlement and sliding safety factor.     

Full-scale mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) walls under strip footing load

This study analyses two full-scale model tests on mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) walls. One test was conducted with a rigid and one with a flexible wall face. Other parameters were the same in these two tests, like the number and type of geogrid layers, the vertical distance between the layers and the soil type. The loads and strains on the reinforcement are measured as function of the horizontal and vertical earth pressure and compared with analytical models. Specifics regarding the behavior of the geogrids under the compaction load during the construction of the model and under strip footing load are included in the study. Results are compared with AASHTO and the empirical K-stiffness method. In this study, an analytical method is developed for the MSE walls taking into account the facing panel rigidity both after backfill construction and after strip footing load. There is good agreement between the proposed analytical method and the experimental results considering the facing panel rigidity. The results indicate that the tensile force on reinforcement layers for rigid facing is less than the flexible facing. The maximum strains in the reinforcement layers occurred in the upper layers right below the strip footing load. The maximum wall deflection for the flexible facing is more than for the rigid facing. The maximum deflection was at the top of the wall for the rigid facing and occurred at z/H?=?0.81 from top of the wall for the flexible facing.     

Responses of single and group piles within MSE walls under static and cyclic lateral loads

To investigate the behavior of piles and the performance of the mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) walls under static and cyclic lateral loading, six reduced-scale model tests of single and group piles within the MSE walls were conducted inside a test box. In the single pile tests, a hollow aluminum tube as a pile was placed at a distance of 2D or 4D (D is pile diameter) behind the wall facing, while in the group pile tests, the piles were only placed at the distance of 2D with a spacing of 3.3D between the piles. The piles were subjected to static lateral loading only and cyclic lateral loading followed by static loading until failure. The test results showed that the lateral load capacity of each pile in the group pile test was approximately 60% that of the single pile, while the wall facing displacements and the geogrid strains in the group pile test were larger than those in the single pile test. The lateral pile capacity, the wall facing displacement, the strain in the geogrid, and the lateral earth pressure behind the wall facing in the static and cyclic loading tests were evaluated at the pile head displacement equal to 20%D.     

Laboratory investigation of bearing capacity behaviour of strip footing on reinforced flyash slope

The paper presents the results of laboratory model tests on bearing capacity behaviour of a strip footing resting on the top of a geogrid reinforced flyash slope. A series of model footing tests covering a wide range of boundary conditions, including unreinforced cases were conducted by varying parameters such as location and depth of embedment of single geogrid layer, number of geogrid layers, location of footing relative to the slope crest, slope angles and width of footing. The results of the investigation indicate that both the pressure–settlement behaviour and the ultimate bearing capacity of footing resting on the top of a flyash slope can be enhanced by the presence of reinforcing layers. However the efficiency of flyash geogrid system increases with the increasing number of geogrid layers and edge distance of footing from the slope. Based on experimental results critical values of geogrid parameters for maximum reinforcing effects are established. Experimental results obtained from a series of model tests have been presented and discussed in the paper.