Radial Load Tests for the Evaluation of Stress-Strain Relation of Geocells

摘要

Geocells represent an alternative for the stabilization of soils with low bearing capacity. The use of geocells is recentlyrnincreasing, especially in areas were good quality aggregate material is hard to find and/or expensive. The performancernof geocell stabilized soils is mainly dependent on the stress-strain relation of the geocells. The stress-strain relation isrncommonly evaluated by tensile tests similar to other geosynthetics. This test method is unsuitable to evaluate the stressstrainrnrelation of the geocell including the junctions or the cell geometry at construction site conditions. Therefore radialrnload tests were developed to determine the stress-strain relation of geocells for load support applications at in-siturnconditions. In this paper the set up and the procedure of new radial load tests are described. Furthermore, the stressstrainrnrelation of different geocells evaluated in tensile tests and in radial load tests are compared and analyzed. Therninfluence of the geocell junctions on the stress-strain relation and the overall performance of geocells are presented.