Effective stiffness matrix calculation of geocell layer and reinforcement mechanism analysis of geocell reinforced embankment

The anisotropic effective stiffness matrix (ESM) of the unit cell (UC) of a geocell layer with different laying modes (denoted by θ), which cannot be measured directly by conventional tests but can be obtained by the mathematical homogenization method (MHM) on the UC of the geocell layer, is needed in simulation and design of geocell reinforced embankment. The components of the ESM are divided into two independent parts based on whether they depend on θ. Compared with the direct numerical simulation (DNS), the homogenized numerical simulation (HNS) of the embankment with the ESM reduced the calculation cost, and the settlement loading curves were in good agreement with the test curves. By analyzing the results of HNS, it was found that (1) the vertical stress diffusion effect is independent on θ, (2) the membrane effect is dependent on θ, and (3) two aspects of the lateral resistance effect were verified.