Bearing capacity of geocell reinforcement in embankment engineering

Soil reinforcement using geocells has been utilized in many areas of geotechnical engineering. In this paper, a model and a simple bearing capacity calculation method for the geocell-supported embankment on the soft subgrade were proposed based on the study of the reinforcement functions of a geocell layer in a road embankment. The model and calculation procedures considered both the “vertical stress dispersion effect” and “membrane effect” of geocell reinforcement. They were verified by a laboratory experiment and compared with Koerner's method. The results indicated that the calculated results obtained from the present method were much closer to the experimental results than those from Koerner's method when the foundation settlement is large. The study also indicated that the installation of the geocell onto the crushed stone cushion significantly increased the bearing capacity of the soft subgrade.