Bearing capacity of circular footings on multi-layered sand-waste tire shreds reinforced with geogrids

The presence of waste tires poses an environmental challenge as they occupy a significant amount of land and are expensive to dispose in landfills.However,reusing waste tires can address this issue when waste tires are used in geotechnical applications.To determine the viability of this approach,laboratoryscale tests were conducted to investigate load-bearing capacity of circular footings on sand-tire shred(STS)mixtures with shredded waste tire contents of 5%e15%by weight and three different widths of shreds.The investigation focused on analyzing the thickness of layers composed of STS mixtures,the soil cap,and the impact of geogrids on bearing capacity.The results indicate that a specific mixture of sand and tire shreds provides the highest footing-bearing capacity.In addition,the optimal shred content and size were found to be 10%by weight and 2 cm×10 cm,respectively.Furthermore,for a given tire shred width,a particular length provides the largest bearing capacity.The results agree well with that of previous research conducted by the first author and his colleagues in direct shear and California bearing ratio(CBR)tests.The primary finding of this research is that the use of two-layered STS mixtures reinforced by geogrids significantly enhances the bearing capacity.

Stress distribution from railway track over geogrid reinforced ballast underlain by clay

Railway ballast forms a major component of a conventional rail track and is used to distribute the load to the subgrade, providing a smooth running surface for trains. It plays a significant role in providing support for the rail track base and distributing the load to the weaker layer underneath. Ballast also helps with drainage, which is an important factor for any type of transportation structure, including railroads. Over time, ballast progressively deforms and degrades under dynamic loading and loses its strength. In this study, extensive laboratory tests were conducted to investigate the effect of load amplitude, geogrid position, and number of geogrid layers, thickness of ballast layer and clay stiffness on the behavior of the reinforced ballast layer and induced strains in a geogrid. A half full-scale railway was constructed for carrying out the tests, which consisted of two rails 800 mm in length with three wooden sleepers(900 mm × 10 mm × 10 mm). Three ballast thicknesses of 200, 300 and 400 mm were used in the tests. The ballast was overlying 500 mm thickness clay in two states, soft and stiff. The tests were carried out with and without geogrid reinforcement; the tests were performed in a well-tied steel box of 1.5 m length ×1 m width ×1 m height. Laboratory tests were conducted to investigate the response of the ballast and the clay layers where the ballast was reinforced by a geogrid. Settlement in ballast and clay, soil pressure and pore water pressure induced in the clay were measured in reinforced and unreinforced ballast cases. It was concluded that the amount of settlement increased as the simulated train load amplitude increased, and there was a sharp increase in settlement up to cycle 500. After that, there was a gradual increase that leveled out between, 2500 to 4500 cycles depending on the frequency used. There was a slight increase in the induced settlement when the load amplitude increased from 0.5 to 1 ton but it was higher when the load amplitude increased to 2 tons. The increased amount in settlement depended on the existence of the geogrid and other parameters studied. The transmitted average vertical stress for ballast thicknesses of 30 cm and 40 cm increased as the load amplitude increased, regardless of the ballast reinforcement for both soft and stiff clay. The position of the geogrid had no significant effect on the transmitted stresses. The value of the soil pressure and pore water pressure on ballast thicknesses of 20 cm was higher than for 30 cm and 40 cm thicknesses. This meant that the ballast attenuated the induced waves. The soil pressure and pore water pressure for reinforced and unreinforced ballast was higher in stiff clay than in soft clay.

Development and Properties of Glass Fiber Reinforced Plastics Geogrid

Glass fiber reinforced plastics geogrid has a wide application in the field of soil reinforcement because of its high strength, good toughness, and resistance to environmental stress, creep resistance and strong stability. In order to get high-powered glass fiber reinforced plastics geogrid and its mechanical characteristics, the properties and physical mechanical index of geogrid have been got through the study of its raw material, production process and important quality index. The analysis and study have been made to the geogrid＇s mechanical properties with loading speed, three-axial compression, temperature tensile test and FLAC3D numerical simulation, thus obtain the mechanical parameters of its displacement time curve, breaking strength and elongation at break. Some conclusions can be drawn as follows： （a） Using glass fiber materials, knurling and coated projection process, the f^acture strength and corrosion resistance of geogrid are greatly improved and the interlocking bite capability of soil is enhanced. （b） The fracture strength of geogrid is related to temperature and loading rate. When the surrounding rock pressure is fixed, the strength and anti-deformation ability of reinforced soil are significantly enhanced with increasing reinforced layers. （c） The pullout test shows the positive correlation between geogrid displacement and action time. （d） As a new reinforced material, the glass fiber reinforced plastics geogrid is not mature enough in theoretical research and practical experience, so it has become an urgent problem both in theoretical study and practical innovation.

Experimental Study on Performance of Multidirectional Geogrid and Its Application in Engineering of High Slope

By analyzing the grille mechanical property, tensile strength and creep tests, and the fi eld tests, we investigated the characteristics and the reinforcement principle of multidirectional geogrid, and obtained the effect factors of grid characteristics, load and time curve and the shear stress of grille and sand interface. The reinforcement effect of geogrid in combination of typical project cases was illustrated and the following conclusions were presented. Firstly, multidirectional geogrid has ability to resist structural deformation, node distortion or soil slippage under stress, and can effectively disperse load. Secondly, with the increase of tensile rate, grille intensity increases and the creep value also increases with the increase of load. Thirdly, the frictional resistance balance between horizontal thrust of damaged zone and reinforced soil in stable region can avoid slope failure due to excessive lateral deformation. Fourthly, the multidirectional geogrid is able to withstand the vertical, horizontal and diagonal forces by combing them well with three-dimensional orientation, realizing the purpose of preventing soil erosion and slope reinforcement, which has a wide range of application and development in engineering fi eld.

Shaking table test of subgrade slope reinforced by gravity retaining wall with geogrids

Gravity retaining wall with geogrids has showed excellent seismic performance from Wenchuan great earthquake.However,seismic damage mechanism of this kind of wall is not sufficiently clear.In view of this,a large shaking table test of the gravity retaining wall with geogrids to reinforce the subgrade slope was carried out,and based on the HilbertHuang transform and the marginal spectrum theory,the energy identification method of the slope dynamic failure mode was studied.The results show that the geogrids can effectively reduce displacement and rotation of the retaining wall,and it can effectively absorb the energy of the ground movement when combined with the surrounding soil.In addition,it also reveals the failure development of the gravity retaining wall with geogrids to reinforce the subgrade slope.The damage started in the deep zone near the geogrids,and then gradually extended to the surface of the subgrade slope and other zones,finally formed a continuous failure surface along the geogrids.The analysis results of the failure mode identified by the Hilbert marginal spectrum are in good consistency with the experimental results,which prove that the Hilbert marginal spectrum can be applied to obtain the seismic damage mechanism of slope.

Material Properties and Tensile Behaviors of Polypropylene Geogrid and Geonet for Reinforcement of Soil Structures

The properties and tensile behaviors of polypropylene (PP) geogrids and geonets for reinforcement of soil structures are investigated.Mass per unit area of the geogrids and geonets was weighed using an electronic balance and aperture sizes of the geonets were exactly measured using a computer.Laboratory tests were performed using a small tensile machine capable of monitoring tensile force and displacement.Tensile failure behaviors were described,and tensile index properties such as tensile strength,maximum tensile strain,tensile forces corresponding to different strains in the geogrids and gronets were obtained.The characterization of these indexes is discussed.

Outdoor Aging Performance of HDPE Geogrid

An outdoor aging test base for geosynthetics was established in Wuhan,central China to investigate the long-term aging performance of geosynthetics. Outdoor photo-oxygen aging tests for high density polyethylene(HDPE) geogrid have been carried out in the base. Test results show that in the initial nine months,the tensile strength of geogrid remains unchanged or even gets larger,while the corresponding strain at break decreases slightly,exhibiting hard and brittle trend due to secondary compensatory responses to the ultraviolet(UV) aging: UV provides the required chemical crosslinking energy,resulting in the polymer crosslinking reaction. Tensile strength of the geogrid increases by about 5% in the initial nine months,but decreases after the initial nine months. The long-term research results at the test base could provide first-hand data for researching the aging properties of HDPE geogrid.

Mechanism of Geogrid Reinforced Soil at Bridge Approach

Using Geogrid-Reinforced Soil （GRS） we studied the working mechanism and design method of GRS at bridge approach with high backfill by field experiment. In a highway section where the height of backfill is 13.5 meters, geogrids were used at two bridge approaches to address the bumping problems. Some soil pressure cells were used to measure the normal and lateral soil pressure at different locations in the roadbed. The experimental results indicate that geogrids in geogrid-reinforced soil （GRS） could produce an uplift force, the closer the location to the abutment, the larger the uplift force, and the reduction of measured soil pressures compared with theoretical values was the largest at the bottom of roadbed, less at the top than at the bottom, and the least in the mid-height of roadbed than at the bottom. These findings are different from those of the traditional greogrid-reinforced subgrade design method,

Investigations on pullout behavior of geogrid-granular trench using CANAsand constitutive model

Experimental and numerical investigations have been carried out on behavior of pullout resistance of embedded circular plate with and without geogrid reinforcement layers in stabilized loose and dense sands using a granular trench.Different parameters have been considered,such as the number of geogrid layers,embedment depth ratio,relative density of soil and height ratio of granular trench.Results showed that,without granular trench,the single layer of geogrid was more effective in enhancing the pullout capacity compared to the multilayer of geogrid reinforcement.Also,increasing the soil density and embedment depth ratio led to an increase in the uplift capacity.When soil was improved with the granular trench,the uplift force significantly increased.The granular trench improved the uplift load in dense sand more,as compared to the same symmetrical plate embedded in loose sand.Although it was observed that,in geogrid-reinforced granular trench condition,the ultimate pullout resistance at failure increased as the number of geogrid layers increased up to the third layer,and the fifth layer had a negligible effect in comparison with the third layer of reinforcement.Finite element analyses with hardening soil model for sand and CANAsand constitutive model for granular trench were conducted to investigate the failure mechanism and the associated rupture surfaces utilized.The response of granular material in the proposed model is an elastoplastic constitutive model derived from the CANAsand model,which uses a non-associated flow rule along with the concept of the state boundary surface possessing a critical and a compact state.It was observed that the granular trench might change the failure mechanism from deep plate to shallow plate as the failure surface can extend to the ground surface.The ultimate uplift capacity of anchor and the variation of surface deformation indicated a close agreement between the experiment and numerical model.

Numerical Analysis of Reinforcement Structure Stability Based on the Stress State of Geogrid

The reinforcement effect of geogrids is exerted through the fixing and occlusion with the surrounding soil to ensure the stability of reinforced structure. Based on the friction reinforced mechanism, the geogrids play the role of anti-shear and anti-pulling. So the indexes of interface strength identified by shear and tensile tests?are?usually used to conduct the stability analysis of reinforced structure. At present, the same indexes of interface strength?areadopted in the stability analysis of reinforced structure, where only one of the anti-shearing action or anti-pulling effect of geogrid is considered, which is separated from the practical stress state of geogrids and has certain limitation. To solve the problem, the paper adjusts the interface indexes of geogrids based on the potential sliding surface and the stress state of geogrids when the failure happens. So the method of stability analysis is concluded where cyclic iterative analysis is carried out till the interface characters of geogrids and the unstable mode of the whole structure are the same. The calculation examples of reinforced soil slope in the paper shows that the method can fully reflect the reinforcement of geogrids and can complete the adoption of numerical method in the stability analysis of reinforcement structure.

Bearing Capacity of Embedded Strip Footing on Geogrid-Reinforced Fly Ash

Fly ash is a pozzolanic waste from the burning of coal ash in thermal power plant which will be unchangeable in India and increasing environmental pollution. There is an urgent need of increasing bulk utilization of fly ash in geotechnical application. In this regard, a study was undertaken to investigate the bearing capacity of fly ash slopes (β) with the strip footing of width (B) 0.1 m located at different edge distances (De = 1B, 2B, 3B) from slope crest. These tests were conducted in the laboratory and the pressure-settlement behaviour of strip footing on unreinforced and reinforced fly ash slope having an angle of 45? was studied. The embedment ratio (Z/B = 0.30), and the depth of first layer of polyester geogrid reinforcement were investigated with different footing edge distances (De = 1B, 2B, 3B). From the experiment, pressure and settlements were measured and subsequently, the pressure settlement curves were drawn. It is observed from test results that the load carrying capacity is found to increase with an edge distance in both cases: unreinforced and reinforced slope. Also, a substantial increase is observed in the bearing capacity with the addition of geogrid reinforcement. It is observed that, the bearing capacity ratio (BCR) decreases with edge distance increase. These investigations demonstrate that both, the ultimate bearing capacity and settlement characteristics of the foundation, can be improved due to the inclusion of reinforcements within the fill.

FINITE-ELEMENT MODELLING OF SOIL-GEOGRID INTERACTION DEALING WITH THE PULLOUT BEHAVIOUR OF GEOGRIDS

To predict the behavior of geogrids embedded in sand under pullout loading conditions, the two dimensional plane-stress finite element model was presented. The interactions between soil and geogrid were simulated as non-linear springs, and the stiffness of the springs was determined from simple tests in the specially designed pullout box. The predicted behavior of the geogrid under pullout load agrees well with the observed data including the load-displacement properties, the displacement distribution along the longitudinal direction and the mobilization of the frictional and bearing resistance. (Edited author abstract) 8 Refs.

Evaluation of parameters affecting reflection cracking in geogrid-reinforced overlay

The influence of the most important parameters on the service life of reinforced asphalt overlay with geogrid materials in bending mode was examined by employing the Taguchi method and analysis of variance techniques. The objectives of this experiment was to investigate the effects of grid stiffness, tensile strength, coating type, amount of tack coat, overlay thickness, crack width and stiffnesses of asphalt overlay and existing asphalt concrete on propagation of the reflection cracking. Results indicate that the stiffnesses of cracked layer and overlay are the main significant factors that can directly improve the service life of an overlay against the reflection cracking. Generally, glass grid is more effective in reinforced overlay than polyester grid. Effect of crack width of the existing layer is significant when its magnitude increases from 6 to 9 mm.

Improved Simulation Method for Soil-Geogrid Interaction of Reinforced Earth Structure in FEM

The interaction between geogrid and soil is crucial for the stability of geogrid-reinforced earth structure. In finite element (FE) analysis, geogrids are usually assumed as beam or truss elements, and the interaction between geogrid and soil is considered as Coulomb friction resistance, which cannot reflect the true stress and displacement developed in the reinforcement. And the traditional Lagrangian elements used to simulate soil always become highly distorted and lose accuracy in high-stress blocks. An improved geogrid model that can produce shear resistance and passive resistance and a soil model using the Eulerian technique, in combination with the coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian (CEL) method, are used to analyze the interaction between geogrid and soil of reinforced foundation test in ABAQUS. The stress in the backfill, resistance of geogrid, and settlement of foundation were computed and the results of analysis agree well with the experimental results. This simulation method is of referential value for FE analysis of reinforced earth structure.

Effect of geogrid reinforcement on soft and medium dense soils

The field tests were carried out to examine the reinforcement effect of a geogrid on various conditions of embankment height,the number of passages of vibratory roller,the number of reinforced layer of geogrid,and soil properties.The test results of the dynamic earth pressure indicate that the soil reinforced by geogrid is very effective to increase the stiffness of soil,especially in soft soil.The dynamic earth pressure ratio,which is defined as the ratio of dynamic earth pressure to self weight of soils,exponentially decreases as the embankment height increases.The dynamic earth pressure ratio increases up to 80% for soft soils reinforced by both one layer of geogrid in place of no reinforced soils and two layers in place of a single layer of geogrid.

Visualization of pullout behaviour of geogrid in sand with emphasis on size effect of protrusive junctions

Geogrid has been extensively used in geotechnical engineering practice due to its effectiveness and economy. Deep insight into the interaction between the backfill soil and the geogrid is of great importance for proper design and construction of geogrid reinforced earth structures. Based on the calibrated model of sand and geogrid, a series of numerical pullout tests are conducted using PFC^(3D) under special considerations of particle angularity and aperture geometry of the geogrid. In this work, interface characteristics regarding the displacement and contact force developed among particles and the deformation and force distribution along the geogrid are all visualized with PFC^(3D) simulations so that new understanding on how geogrid-soil interaction develops under pullout loads can be obtained. Meanwhile, a new variable named fabric anisotropy coefficient is introduced to evaluate the inherent relationship between macroscopic strength and microscopic fabric anisotropy. A correlation analysis is adopted to compare the accuracy between the newly-proposed coefficient and the most commonly used one. Furthermore, additional pullout tests on geogrid with four different joint protrusion heights have been conducted to investigate what extent and how vertical reinforcement elements may result in reinforcement effects from perspectives of bearing resistance contribution, energy dissipation, as well as volumetric response. Numerical results show that both the magnitude and the directional variation of normal contact forces govern the development of macroscopic strength and the reinforcing effects of joint protrusion height can be attributed to the accelerated energy dissipation across the particle assembly and the intensive mobilization of the geogrid.

Experimental study on visco-elastic constitutive relationship and its parameters for geogrids

Geogrids are used as reinforcement materials widely in geotechnical and civil engineering fields. In this paper, a series of comparative tests on creep behavior of specific geo0grids are conducted in the laboratory under different combinations of loading levels and environmental temperature. Based on the test results, comparative analyses are made to study long-term behaviors of isochronous load-strain curves, creep curves and relaxation curves for the specified geogrids. Furthermore, a constitutive model based on theory of visco-elasticity and tests results is proposed for geogrids and a rational procedure is presented in detail for determining the relevant parameters of the proposed model. Finally, the effect of tests temperature on model parameter values is investigated.

土工格栅加筋粉煤灰改良黄土力学特性研究

随着西部黄土地区城镇化进程的加快,填挖结合的新增用地方式要求地基处理技术需要重点解决填方区的强度与变形问题。论文将粉煤灰作为改性填料对黄土进行改良,通过直剪试验、三轴试验、湿陷试验与扫描电镜试验,分析不同粉煤灰掺入比条件下加筋与未加筋黄土试样的强度变化规律、宏观破坏特征和微结构特征。结果表明:采用粉煤灰改良和土工格栅加筋后,黄土的最优含水率增大,最大干密度降低。当粉煤灰掺入比λ=20%时,加筋改良效果最好,黄土的峰值强度、残余强度和等效内摩擦角均有大幅提高,侧向变形显著减小,且能有效降低其湿陷性。微结构分析表明:粉煤灰对黄土的改良主要体现在颗粒直接填充和化学结晶体交织成的网状填充两种类型的强化作用,改良后黄土的孔隙率与孔隙尺寸均有所下降。研究结果可为黄土地区填方边坡与填方路基的改良加固提供参考。

高速铁路土工格栅加筋膨胀土边坡作用机制

土工格栅加筋处治是解决膨胀土边坡问题的关键技术。为深入研究格栅与膨胀土相互作用机制,依托南宁铁路改柳南线工程,开展加筋设计及格栅抗拔稳定性计算。将考虑膨胀土侧向膨胀影响及格栅反包约束作用的设计方案应用于实际工程中,并通过预埋设的监测元件,对自然降雨−蒸发气候下加筋边坡的含水率、应力、位移及格栅应变的变化特征进行长期监测。研究结果表明:在考虑侧向膨胀及格栅约束的影响下,土工格栅的抗拔稳定安全系数仍满足规范要求。基于监测数据发现,受大气环境影响,体积含水率的波动幅度由浅至深逐渐减弱;格栅应变变化趋势与土体应力变化趋势基本一致,随季节性干湿气候呈“波浪”式变化;靠近坡面土体受大气干湿循环的影响更为显著,对降雨入渗敏感,其土工格栅应变变化迅速,峰值出现时间早;格栅应变峰值远小于格栅允许拉应变,且边坡累积水平位移量较小,表明加筋边坡滑移破坏风险较低;在降雨过程中,格栅对边坡土体施加弹性约束,允许坡面发生一定程度的膨胀,释放坡体因增湿产生的膨胀势,从而避免边坡因侧向应力增大形成渐进式滑坡,体现了土工格栅加筋膨胀土边坡“以柔治胀”的作用机制。研究成果可为高速铁路膨胀土边坡的土工格栅加筋设计与施工提供理论和技术支撑。

高摩阻超静定土工格栅在粗粒土夹层中的剪胀作用研究

在加筋土工程中,采用异型格栅和设置粗粒土夹层可以有效增强筋土相互作用。然而粗粒土夹层厚度的确定方法仍有待进一步研究。基于一种带有凸起节点结构的高摩阻超静定土工格栅(high resistance hyperstatic geogrids,简称HRHG)与砾石的直剪试验结果,建立了剪切硬化筋土界面的剪胀本构模型,并进一步研究了筋土剪胀应力在土体内引起附加应力的分布规律。通过开展不同法向压力(30、50、80 kPa)下的直剪试验,研究了不同粗粒土夹层厚度(60、100、140、180 mm)对筋土相互作用的影响,并与筋土界面剪胀应力的分布规律进行了对比分析。结果表明,筋土界面剪胀本构模型可以有效计算剪缩位移和剪胀位移,且最终剪胀位移随法向压力增加而减小。由界面剪胀应力引起的粗粒土中附加应力随着与筋土界面距离的增加而降低,但是剪胀范围逐步增大。粗粒土夹层厚度的增加可以有效提高界面剪切强度,但存在最优夹层厚度使界面剪切强度的增幅迅速降低。最优夹层厚度随着法向压力的增加而减小。通过对比分析最优夹层厚度与剪胀应力比之间的关系,提出了基于筋土界面剪胀本构模型的确定最优夹层厚度的半经验公式,可为HRHG在工程中的设计或应用提供参考。