Repeated load tests on geosynthetic reinforced unpaved road sections

Abstract

This paper presents the experimental results from laboratory repeated plate load tests on unreinforced and reinforced model sections of unpaved road constructed in a steel test tank. Different types of geosynthetics, namely, geotextile, two types of biaxial geogrids and geocells were used to reinforce the road sections in different tests. The effect of type and form of reinforcement on the stress-strain hysteresis of unpaved road sections is discussed in the light of experimental results. Model tests were also conducted with varying heights and positions of geocell layer to study the effect of these parameters on deformations and surface profiles. It was observed that at higher settlements, the reinforced systems developed less permanent settlements and more elastic settlements compared to unreinforced systems. Increasing the height of the geocell layer resulted in improved performance up to a certain height, beyond which, further increase in the height reduced the load resistance because of the inadequate granular overlay thickness.

KEYWORDS:

• repeated load tests
• model studies
• unpaved road
• geosynthetics
• geocells
• granular overlay

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.