Cement-Modified Backfills for Mechanically Stabilized Earth Walls with Built-In Facing
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 21, Issue 7
Abstract
A field study was undertaken to evaluate the performance of model geotextile-reinforced mechanically stabilized earth walls constructed using locally available marginal backfill soils without and with cement modification. Cyclic plate load tests were carried out on the constructed walls both at optimum moisture content and in fully wet conditions in the case of plain backfills and in fully wet condition for cement-modified backfills. The performance and utility of the proposed built-in soil cement facing with folded-back geotextile layers were also examined. The reduction in load-carrying capacity of walls upon wetting could be compensated by cement modification of marginal backfills while maintaining the pullout resistance of reinforcing layers with nominal variation in the flexibility of walls. The performance of model walls constructed using cement-modified marginal backfills is found to be even superior to the wall constructed using free draining sand backfill in terms of higher load-carrying capacity with reduced lateral facing deformations. It was observed that the geotextile-reinforcing layers in marginal backfills also facilitate the internal drainage.
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Information
Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 21 • Issue 7 • July 2009
Pages: 343 - 348
Copyright
© 2009 ASCE.
History
Received: Dec 21, 2006
Accepted: Dec 29, 2008
Published online: Jun 15, 2009
Published in print: Jul 2009
Notes
Note. Associate Editor: Anand J. Puppala
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