Numerical Analysis of Response of Geocell Confined Flexible Pavement

Abstract

Geocell is one of the recent forms of reinforcing material that is increasingly used in applications in flexible pavements. In the present work, the benefit provided by geocell- reinforcement to the flexible pavement in terms of settlement as well as fatigue and rutting strains reductions are analysed. A simple composite model for geocell-reinforced soil is proposed to represent the three dimensional structure. To investigate the behaviour of geocell reinforcement in the flexible pavement, a series of numerical analyses are carried out to understand the effect of secant modulus of geocell material, aspect ratio, thickness of geocell-reinforced layer, and type of subgrade material and the results are presented in this paper. The results of the analysis are useful in development of guidelines for the design of flexible pavements in using geocells.