Performance of Footing on Clay Bed Reinforced with Coir Cell Networks
Publication: International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 20, Issue 8
Abstract
Geocells are three-dimensional polymeric hexagonal pockets that provide lateral confinement to the soil, thereby increasing the bearing capacity of the soil bed. This paper briefly reviews past studies on geocell reinforcement of soil and presents a new product, cells made out of natural coir fiber, as an alternative to commercially available high-density polyethylene (HDPE) geocells. A series of model plate load tests were conducted on unreinforced soil and on soil reinforced with coir geocells to understand the soil reinforcement mechanism. It was observed that with the introduction of coir geocells, the load-bearing capacity of the soil bed increased up to three times and a significant reduction in the settlement was observed in the underlying weak soil bed. The study also presents a comparative performance evaluation of the natural coir cell-reinforced soil with conventional HDPE geocell-reinforced soil. Further, this paper analytically demonstrates the influence of the lateral resistance effect and vertical load dispersion effect incorporated by coir cells in strengthening the soil bed.
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Acknowledgments
Authors thank the Editor, Associate Editor and anonymous reviewers for their critical comments and valuable insights which helped improve the manuscript significantly.
Notation
The following symbols are used in this paper:
- P
- applied vertical pressure on geocell;
- PHDPE
- bearing pressure in HDPE geocell-reinforced soil bed;
- Pcoir
- bearing pressure in coir geocell-reinforced soil bed;
- S
- settlement of footing in meters;
- S/B
- ratio of settlement and the width of the footing;
- Τ
- shear strength between the inner surface of coir cell wall and infill soil;
- ΔP1
- lateral dispersion component;
- ΔP2
- vertical stress dispersion effect component;
- δ
- angle of shearing resistance between the coir geocell wall and the soil contained; and
- ϕ
- friction angle of the sand used to fill the cell pockets.
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Published In
International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 20 • Issue 8 • August 2020
Copyright
© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 11, 2019
Accepted: Jan 16, 2020
Published online: May 20, 2020
Published in print: Aug 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Oct 20, 2020
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