A comparative experimental study of geocell and geogrid-reinforced highway base layers under repeated loads

Abstract

This paper presents experimental results of laboratory model tests of geosynthetic reinforced highway base layers subjected to repeated loads. The potential benefit of geocell and geogrid, when used in the base layer as a reinforcement material, was examined and assessed by performance indicators including total, permanent (plastic), and elastic (resilient) deformation, traffic benefit ratio (TBR), rut depth reduction (RDR), percentage of elastic deformation, and resilient modulus (M-R). In the light of the results of this study, geocell and geogrid-reinforced bases outperform the unreinforced base in terms of elastic and permanent deformations. Further experimental results reveal that although the thickness of the base layer was decreased to a rate of 33%, geocell and geogrid enable a considerable reduction in the rut depth at an approximate rate of 21% and 13%, respectively. Moreover, when the thickness of the base layer remains constant, about 48% to 43% reduction in the rut depth was provided by geocell and geogrid reinforcement.