• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.301-315
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• 2023

Adopting cohesive soil as geocell-pocket infill materials is not fully accepted by researchers in the field of road engineering. The cohesion that may inhibit the lateral limitation of geocells is a common vital idea that exists within every researcher. However, the influence of infill materials' cohesion on geocell-reinforced performance is still not thoroughly determined. The mechanism behind this still needs to be studied in depth. This study initially discussed the relationship between subgrade bearing capacity, geocells' contribution to reinforced performance, and infill materials' cohesion (IMC). A law was proposed that adopting the soil with high cohesion as infill materials benefited the subgrade bearing capacity, but this was attributed to the superior mechanical properties of infill materials rather than geocells' contribution. Moreover, the vertical and lateral deformation of subgrade, coupling shear stress and confining stress of geocells, and deformation of geocells were deeply studied to analyze the mechanism that high cohesion can inhibit the geocells' contribution. The results indicate that the infill materials with high cohesion result in the total displacement of the subgrade toward to deeper depth, not the lateral direction. These responses decrease the vertical coupling shear stress, confining stress, and normal displacement of geocell walls, which weaken the lateral limitation of geocells.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.405-422
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• 2016

The paper deals with the results of the laboratory cyclic plate load tests performed on the reinforced soft clay beds. The performances of the clay bed reinforced with geocells and geocells with additional basal geogrid cases are compared with the performance of the unreinforced clay beds. From the cyclic plate load test results, the coefficient of elastic uniform compression ($C_u$) was calculated for the different cases. The $C_u$ value was found to increase in the presence of geocell reinforcement. The maximum increase in the $C_u$ value was observed in the case of the clay bed reinforced with the combination of geocell and geogrid. In addition, 3 times increase in the strain modulus, 10 times increase in the bearing capacity, 8 times increase in the stiffness and 90% reduction in the settlement was observed in the presence of the geocell and geogrid. Based on the laboratory test results, a hypothetical case of a prototype foundation subjected to cyclic load was analyzed. The results revealed that the natural frequency of the foundation-soil system increases by 4 times and the amplitude of the vibration reduces by 92% in the presence of the geocells and the geogrids.

• 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.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.71-78
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• 2019

Massive investments are going on to promote and build transportation infrastructure all across the globe with the challenges being more than budgetary. Sandy soils which are predominant in coastal and border areas in India have typical characteristics. The shear strength of such soil is very low which makes it difficult for any kind of geotechnical construction and hence soil stabilization needs to be carried out for such soil conditions. The use of geocells is one of the most economical methods of soil improvement which is used to increase strength and stiffness and reduce the liquefaction potential of the soil. The use of geocells in stabilizing desert sand and results from a series of plate load test on unreinforced soil and geocell reinforced homogenous sand beds are presented in the present study. It also compares the field results using various load class vehicles like heavy load military vehicles on geocell reinforced soils with the experimental results and comes out with the fact that the proposed technique increases the strength and stiffness of sandy soil considerably and provides a solution for preventing settlement and subsidence.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.614-619
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• 2002

Since 1980's in U.S.A and Japan, the studies on increasing the bearing capacity of railway roadbed using geocell have been conducted for repair and reinforcement of railways constructed on soft soils. In this study, the railway roadbed system reinforced with geocells has been analyzed and investigated results of the previous studies were conducted in Korea and other nations, And the method for estimating the railway roadbed thickness was developed based on the equivalent method using the multi-layer theory and the deformation modulus Ev.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.19-23
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• 2008

This paper summarized that the developing Geocell(Geocomb$^{(R)}$) cellular confinement system with a porous strip and the researches on its properties. The new geoell has shown excellent properties; frictional and permeable characteristics, and is expected to be a proper solution to various fields related.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.191-208
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• 2012

Due to rapid industrialisation, large scale infrastructure development is taking place worldwide. This includes railways, high speed highways, elevated roads etc. To meet the demands of society and industry, many innovative techniques and materials are being developed. In developed nations like USA, Japan etc. for railways applications, new material like geocells, geogrids are being used successfully to enable fast movement of vehicles. The present research work was aimed to develop design methodologies for improvement of grounds subjected to cyclic loads caused by moving vehicles on roads, rail tracks etc. Deformation behavior of ballast under static and cyclic load tests was studied based on square footing test. The paper presents a study of the effect of geo-synthetic reinforcement on the (cumulative) plastic settlement, of point loaded square footing on a thick layer of granular base overlying different compressible bases. The research findings showed that inclusion of geo-synthetics significantly improves the performance of ballasted tracks and reduces the foundation area. If the area is kept same, higher speed trains can be allowed to pass through the same track with insertion of geosynthetics. Similarly, area of machine foundation may also be reduced where geosynthetics is provided in foundation. The model tests results have been validated by numerical modeling, using $FLAC^{3D}$.

• 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.

• 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.