Influence of Properties of Infill Material on the Behaviour of Geocells

Abstract

This paper investigates the influence of properties of infill material on the load-settlement behaviour of geocell mattresses by carrying out a series of laboratory scale-load tests on a model strip footing resting on clay reinforced with confined geocells. The parameters varied include aspect ratio of the aperture of geocell, infill materials and relative density of the infill material. The infill materials used in this study are sand, 6 mm aggregates and 12 mm aggregates. The experimental results are compared with the results obtained from Finite Element Analyses carried out using the software Plaxis 2D. It is observed that the load-settlement behaviour is considerably influenced by the properties of infill material. An increase in grain size of the infill material considerably improved the load-settlement response of the geocell. However an increase in the aspect ratio of the aperture of the geocell caused a reduction in bearing capacity. It is also observed that an infill material of sand, compacted to a relative density of 88% gives better improvement than 6 mm aggregate.