Stability of geocell-reinforced soil

Abstract

Engineers often experience difficulties in starting any construction work on soft clay because there is no hard strata at a depth of 15 m. The application of a geocell structure provides a comparatively harder stratum at the top of the soft subgrade. Therefore, experimental investigations have been carried out on the stability of a geocell-reinforced soft soil structure, to evaluate the effect of the geocell configuration (i.e. geocell opening size, height) on the bearing capacity and the failure settlement of a two-layer system. The laboratory model tests for ultimate bearing capacity of marine clay overlain by a sand layer with and without the geocell are performed to study load-settlement characteristics and the increase of bearing capacity and reduction of settlement. The model foundation used is just strip footing on the surface. The actual behaviour of the geocell structure under different external loading conditions has been revealed in these studies. It has been observed that load-settlement characteristics are improved owing to the use of geocell reinforcement. In addition, an improved bearing capacity factor has been suggested on the basis of the experimental results.