Deformation Calculation of Geocell Reinforcement Based on the Double Euler Beams Theory

Abstract

  For an embankment engineering，vehicle loads act on the pavement faceplate directly and then affect geocell reinforcement through the embankment fill. Considering this load transfer mechanism，and the effect of embankment fill stiffness and consolidation of soft soil，a geocell reinforced subgrade was regarded as a lower beam placed on Kelvin foundation and the pavement facelate was regarded as a upper beam placed on Winkler foundation. On the basis of the double-Euler-beam theory，a deformation control differential equation of geocell reinforcement and its solutions were proposed by taking into account the effect of the interaction among the pavement faceplate embankment fill，geocell reinforcement，and foundation soil. There is a good agreement when internal force and displacement calculated by the method in this paper are compared with internal force and displacement calculated by traditional method for elastic foundation beam. On this basis，the factors influencing the stress-deformation characteristics of the geocell reinforcement such as stiffness of geocell reinforcement，stiffness of embankment fill，coefficient of subgrade reaction force and the degree of consolidation of foundation soil, were discussed. The results show that flexural deformations of both pavement and geocell reinforcement reduce with the increment of stiffness of geocell reinforcement and the increment of coefficient of subgrade reaction force. And the deformations increase with the development of the consolidation of foundation soil. In addition，with higher embankment fill stiffness，the deformation of the pavement is smaller，while the deformation of geocell reinforcement is larger.

Keywords: deformation,  geocell reinforcement,  the double beam,  Kelvin foundation model,  Winkler foundation model