Stress-Strain Response of Multi-Layered Geocell Reinforced Soil by Triaxial Test

The effectiveness of the single layer of the geocell reinforced soil has been investigated in geotechnical applications by researchers. But the limited height of commercially produced geocell and a major obstacle to achieve a uniform and suitable density inside the cells, leads to investigate the performance of multi-layered geocell reinforced soil in improving the behaviour of soil. In the paper a series of triaxial compression tests was carried out on natural soil with and without geocell layers. The layers configuration is two and four horizontal geocell reinforcing layers in a triaxial test sample. The influences of the number of geocell layers and confining pressure were studied and described. Based on test results, it is observed that the strength of soil is improved significantly with geocell layers. Also, the results indicate that, for the same mass of geocell material used in the reinforced soil samples, four layers of geocell reinforcement behaves more effectively than those obtained for two layers of geocell reinforcement to improve the stress-strain behavior. The apparent cohesive strength induced by geocell reinforcement increases significantly with increase in the geocell layers from two to four whereas the friction angle of soil samples does not affect by the geocell reinforcement. The use of the improvement in strength response due to inclusion of layers of geocell can be advantageously used in bearing capacity improvement and settlement reduction in the design of shallow foundations and pavement system.