Reply to the discussion by Ayhan Gurbuz on 'Bearing capacity of geocell reinforcement in embankment engineering' Geotextiles and Geomembranes 28(5), 2010, pp. 475-482

摘要

The authors thank Ayhan Gurbuz for his interest in our work and for the opportunity to clarify our model framework and results. Our work, described in Zhang et al. (Geotextiles and Geomembranes 28(5), 2010, pp. 475-482), deals with a model and simple bearing capacity calculation method for the geocell-supported embankment on soft subgrade. In our analytical method, the total increased bearing capacity due to the placement of the geocell reinforced cushion is made up of the bearing capacity increments induced by the "vertical stress dispersion effect" (Δp_1 and "membrane effect" (Δp_2) of the geocell reinforced cushion. Ayhan Gurbuz had some objection to the derivation of Δp_1. For the purpose of reply, we would like to explain the derivation of Δp_1 in our work. Before the explanation, we regret mislaying the notations "p_r" and "p_s" in Fig. 2 in our published paper (Geotextiles and Geomembranes 28(5), 2010, pp. 476). The correct places for "pr" and "p_s" are shown in Fig. 1.