Numerical analysis on Buried pipes protected by combination of geocell reinforcement and rubber-soil mixture

A numerical simulation of laboratory model tests was carried out to develop an understanding of the behaviour of pipes in a trench prepared with 3-Dimensional reinforced (namely "geocell-reinforced" in the present study) sand and rubber-soil mixtures, under repeated loadings. The study reports overall performance of buried pipes in different conditions of pipe-trench installations and the influence of pipe stiffness on backfill settlements, stress distribution in the trench depth and stress distribution along the pipe's longitudinal axis. Good agreements between the numerical results and experimental results were observed. The results demonstrate that combined use of the geocell layer and rubber-soil mixture can reduce soil surface settlement and pipe deflection and eventually provide a secure condition for buried pipe even under strong repeated loads

Numerical analysis on Buried pipes protected by combination of geocell reinforcement and rubber-soil mixture

A numerical simulation of laboratory model tests was carried out to develop an understanding of the behaviour of pipes in a trench prepared with 3-Dimensional reinforced (namely "geocell-reinforced" in the present study) sand and rubber-soil mixtures, under repeated loadings. The study reports overall performance of buried pipes in different conditions of pipe-trench installations and the influence of pipe stiffness on backfill settlements, stress distribution in the trench depth and stress distribution along the pipe's longitudinal axis. Good agreements between the numerical results and experimental results were observed. The results demonstrate that combined use of the geocell layer and rubber-soil mixture can reduce soil surface settlement and pipe deflection and eventually provide a secure condition for buried pipe even under strong repeated loads

A simplified method for predicting the settlement of circular footings on multi-layered geocell-reinforced non-cohesive soils

Multiple layers of geosynthetic reinforcement, placed below foundations or in the supporting layers of road pavements, can improve section performance through several mechanisms, leading to reduction in stresses and deformations. This paper aims to present a new analytical solution, based on the theory of multi-layered soil system to estimate the pressure–settlement response of a circular footing resting on such foundations, specifically those containing geocell layers. An analytical model that incorporates the elastic characteristics of soil and reinforcement is developed to predict strain and confining pressure propagated throughout an available multi-layer system, is proposed. A modified elastic method has been used to back-calculate the elastic modulus in terms of strain and confining pressure with materials data extracted from triaxial tests on unreinforced and geocell-reinforced soil samples. The proposed model has been validated by results of plate load tests on unreinforced and geocell-reinforced foundation beds. The comparisons between the results of the plate load tests and proposed analytical method reflected a satisfactory accuracy and consistency, especially at expected, practical, settlement ratios. Furthermore, to have a better assessment of geocell-reinforced foundations' behaviour, a parametric sensitivity has been studied. The results of this study show that the higher bearing pressure and lower settlement were achieved when number of geocell layer, secant modulus of geocell and the modulus number of the soil were increased. These results are in-line with the experimental results of the previous researchers. The study also permits the limits of effective and efficient reinforcement to be determined

Experimental and numerical investigation of footing behaviour on multi-layered rubber-reinforced soil

This paper describes the beneficial effects of multiple layers of rubber–sand mixture (RSM). The plate load tests, using circular plate of 300 mm diameter, were performed at an outdoor test pit, dug in natural ground with dimensions of 2000 × 2000 mm in plan and 720 mm in depth to facilitate realistic test conditions. The rubber used in the RSM layers was granulated rubber, produced from waste tires. The optimum thickness of the RSM layer was determined to be approximately 0.4 times the footing diameter. By increasing the number of RSM layers, the bearing capacity of the foundation can be increased and the footing settlement reduced. The influence of the number of RSM layers on bearing capacity and settlement become almost insignificant beyond three layers of RSM, particularly at low settlement ratios. At a ratio of settlement to plate diameter of 4%, the values of bearing pressure for the installation with one, two, three and four layers of RSM were about 1.26, 1.47, 1.52 and 1.54 times greater, respectively, than that for the unreinforced installation. Layers of the RSM reduced the vertical stress transferred through the foundation depth by distributing the load over a wider area. For example, at an applied footing pressure of 560 kPa, the transferred pressure at a depth of 570 mm was about 58, 45 and 35% for one, two and three layers of RSM, respectively, compared to the transferred stress in the unreinforced bed. By numerical analysis, it was found that the presence of soil-rubber layers resulted in expansion of passive zones in the foundation due to the effectiveness of the confinement provided by the rubber inclusions, and this tends to make the bed deflect less. On the basis of this study, the concept of using multiple RSM layers has not only been shown to improve the performance of foundations under heavy loading, but also, the environmental impacts of waste tires are attenuated by re-using their rubber as part of a composite soil material in civil engineering works