International Journal of Advances in Engineering and Management (IJAEM)

Volume 3, Issue 7 July 2021, pp: 2031-2036 www.ijaem.net ISSN: 2395-5252

“Soil Stabilization by Using Geocell”

Prof. Birajdar S. J.1, Iraganti J. G.2, Mungapatil P. A.3Jamadar S.V.4,
Gajul P.U.5,
Kshirsagar R. S.6
1
Professor, Civil Engineering Department, N. B. Navale Sinhgad College of Engineering, Solapur, India.
2,3,4,5,6
Student, Civil Engineering Department, N. B. Navale Sinhgad College of Engineering, Solapur, India.

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Submitted: 01-07-2021 Revised: 13-07-2021 Accepted: 16-07-2021
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ABSTRACT: In any civil engineering there are Geocells are three dimensional honey comb
mainly two basic criteria first the structure should geosynthetic product that provide all round
be Safe from failures second it should be confinement to the Soil. The main objective of
economical. Geocell materials is three- geocell reinforcement is to improve stability,
diamensional expandable panels made from high increase in bearing capacity and reduce thickness
density polyethlene (HDPE). Geocell material acts layers. Soil is strong in Compression but weak in
as important roll in Combination of reduction of tension and Vice-versa. Geosynthetics are week in
thickness in loyers and improvement of life of compression but strong in tension. In unreinforced
pavement in terms of million standard axle (MSA) pavement due to presence of aggregate abrasion or
and bearing capacity of soil. Poor soil condition, is movement takes place so this causes loss in
usually reason behind the lack of strength so, to strength and increases maintenance. In reinforced
overcome this problem using of geocell is one of pavement geocell is introduced by infill material as
the suitable method in construction of road soil this builds strength and reduces maintenance
pavement. In this study laboratory and field test Cost. Flexible Pavement is composed of several
where conducted to observe the porformance of layers of materials each layer receives some
geocell. Soil stabilization of geocell improves load amount of load and distribute to the another layer.
distrution in reinforced pavement and unreinforced The main four layers of flexible pavement are
pavement. In Laboratory test, test on soil were Surface Course, Base Course, Sub-base course and
conducted to know properties of soil and in field Subgrade. The use of geocell in flexible pavement
test, on geocells test on geocell by using infill helps to maintain a good level Surface and evenly
material (soil). were taken. The test carried out are distribute the vertical loads of heavy moving
CBR and plate Load test under gradually loading. vehicles. Lateral Confinement of infill materials
The test results show that the geocell reinforcement prevents movement and Shearing under loading.
increases the Settlement bearing capacity and The main Aim and Objective of the Study is to
occurs settlement. determine the increase in Safe bearing capacity and
KEYWORDS: Soil,Geo-cell, unreinforced decreases settlement. In this paper We have
pavement, Reinforced pavement, HDPE Material, shownthe comparative study of reinforced and
CBR Test and Plate load test, Bearing Capacity, unreinforced pavement . A number of researchers
settlement. have Investigated the fundamental Properties of
Soil Rajagopal et al 2005, Bhagaban Acharya et al
I.INTRODUCTION: 2007 , Lathaet al 2006 ,Pokharel et al 2009.
Basically pavements are classified as rigid
and flexible pavement. Mostly geocell is used in II.OBJECTIVES
flexible pavement because they fail due to two • To Plan the layout and thickness of flexible
reasons fatigue cracking and rutt formation so, to pavement and analyse, design the geocell
overcome this problem geocell is used reinforcement flexible pavement to improve its
.Geosynthetics are available in a wide range of performance.
materials Such as Geocell, Geomesh and Geogrid. • To check the behavior of geocell flexible
There are many applications were geocell can be pavement in contrast to conventional pavements.
used i.e. in constructions, Slope protections, • The focus of this study is to increase the bearing
structures to overcome failures or settlement. The capacity of soil.

DOI: 10.35629/5252-030720312036 Impact Factor value 7.429 | ISO 9001: 2008 Certified Journal Page 2031
 International Journal of Advances in Engineering and Management (IJAEM)
Volume 3, Issue 7 July 2021, pp: 2031-2036 www.ijaem.net ISSN: 2395-5252

• To determine the life of reinforced pavement carried out the tests and sieving is done accordingly
compare to the unreinforced pavement and o study by mechanical method.
about the settlement of pavement and rutt Mixing in prescribed proportion:After sieving
formation in pavement the soil, the soil passes from 4.75mm sieve is taken
and mixing is done in required amount of water
III. METHODOLOGY content.

Laboratory tests
Specific gravity:Specific gravity (G) is determined
by pycnometer method. In this test our aim is to
find out the value of „G‟. Specific gravity is
calculated from following formula
Gs‟= (W2-W1)/(W2-W1)-(W3-W4)
Where,
W1= Mass of pycnometer
W2= Mass of pycnometer + Dry soil
W3= Mass of pycnometer + Dry soil + water
W4= Mass of pycnometer + water
Water content: Water content is determined by
oven- drying method. In water content the main
aim is to find out the moisture content present in
the soil. In our project the objective of water
content is used to determine the bearing capacity
and settlement. Water content is calculated from
following formula
W= W2-W3/W3-W1 x100
Where,
W= water content percent,
W2=mass of container with lid with wet soil in g,
W3=mass of container with lid with dry soil in g,
and
W1=mass of container with lid in g.
Grain size distribution:The main aim of grain size
is to determine the percentage of various size
particles present in a soil sample. In our project the
main objective is to determine or classify the
category of soil i.e. coefficient of curvature (cc)
and coefficient of uniformity (cu). So as to know
that the soil is poorly graded, well graded or gap
graded.
The formula to calculate Cu and Cc is,
Cu= D60/D10
Cc= D302/D60xD10
Optimum moisture content and maximum dry
density:OMC and MMD helps to determine the
optimum water content that is required for to know
the maximum compaction. In our project this OMC
Collection of soil from site:Our site location is at and MDD is used in plate load test to obtain water
kegoan to Mangalveda Highway. From this site we content and compaction required
collected ample amount of soil required to conduct
all the test which are mentioned above i.e. Plastic limit:In this test we observe the stage of
Laboratory and field test. soil at which its start to crumble or becomes semi-
Sieving by is 4.75mm:After collection of soil from solid. It is used to find out the plasticity at which
site it is dispatched in laboratory. Then the soil is we get to know the strength and stiffness of soil.
taken in prescribed proportion as required for Liquid limit: In liquid limit the soil loses its
plasticity. The main aim of liquid limit in our

DOI: 10.35629/5252-030720312036 Impact Factor value 7.429 | ISO 9001: 2008 Certified Journal Page 2032
 International Journal of Advances in Engineering and Management (IJAEM)
Volume 3, Issue 7 July 2021, pp: 2031-2036 www.ijaem.net ISSN: 2395-5252

project is to calculate allowable bearing capacity

and settlementLiquid limit is conducted by
casagrande‟s Apparatus
California bearing ratio:The main aim of this test
is to determine the CBR of geocell which is used in
a sub-grade of flexible pavement. This ratio is
measured using a standardized penetration test.
Plate load test:It is a field test which is used to
determine the ultimate bearing capacity of the soil
and the probable settlement under a given load.
Ultimate bearing capacity is calculated by,Safe
bearing capacity= ultimate bearing capacity/ cross- FIG. 2 COMPACTION
section area x factor of safety.
Laying and adjusting of geocell:In laying the
IV.PLANNING AND INSTALLATION geocell material is first cut into 1mx 1m and its
OFGEO-CELL spread on the first layer and expanded it tightly.

FIG. 3 LAYING OF GEOCELL

Placing of infill material and compaction: After

laying and expanding geocell the infill material i.e.
soil is filled into the geocell properly and the
surface is levelled and then compaction is carried
out

Excavation of trench pitExcavation of

1mx1mx0.25m is done on particular site.

FIG. 4 PLACING OF INFILL MATERIAL

Laying and compaction: After compaction of

FIG. 1 EXCAVATION OF TRENCH PIT geocell layer the surface has been leveled with
another layer of soil and compaction is done.
Mixing of soil and compaction: In mixing, the
soil of about 450kg and water of about 40 liters is
taken for over all mixing. After that the first layer
is laid in the entire pit and compaction is carried
out by hammer with 56 blows.

FIG. 5 LAYING AND COMPACTION

DOI: 10.35629/5252-030720312036 Impact Factor value 7.429 | ISO 9001: 2008 Certified Journal Page 2033
 International Journal of Advances in Engineering and Management (IJAEM)
Volume 3, Issue 7 July 2021, pp: 2031-2036 www.ijaem.net ISSN: 2395-5252

V.LABORATORY INVESTIGATION 1 0
TABLE NO 1: RESULTS OF SOIL 1.5 4
Property Result 2 26
Gravel 0.35mm 2.5 44
Sand 1.25mm 4 66
Fines 4.3mm 5 84
Silt 14% 5.5 90
Specific 2.475 7.5 128
Gravity 10 166
Liquid 48% 12 218
limit
Plastic 40.175%
250
limit
200
OMC 16%
150

Load
MDD 1.63gm/cc
100
50 Load (kg)
VI. OBSERVATION AND RESULTS 0
1. CBR TEST 0.5 2 5 10
A.Observation table of unreinforced pavement:
TABLE NO 2 Penetration
Penetration (mm) Loads
(KG) Graph of reinforced pavement
0.5 14
1 20 Results:
1.5 28 Final CBR Value:-
2 34 TABLE NO 4
2.5 40 Type of soil CBR and Total
4 62 MSA thickness
5 74 (mm)
5.5 84 Unreinforced CBR 4.08 % 730
7.5 106 & MSA 21
10 140 Reinforced CBR 5.54 % 675
12 156 & MSA 21

200
150
Load

100
50 Load
(kg)
0
0.5 2 5 10
Penetration

Graph of Unreinforced pavement 2.PLATE LOAD TEST

A.Observation table of unreinforced pavement:
B.Observation table of reinforced pavement TABLE NO 5
TABLE NO 3 Load Settlement of unreinforced
Penetration Loads (KG) (KN) (mm)
(mm) 0 0
0.5 0 20 4.5

DOI: 10.35629/5252-030720312036 Impact Factor value 7.429 | ISO 9001: 2008 Certified Journal Page 2034
 International Journal of Advances in Engineering and Management (IJAEM)
Volume 3, Issue 7 July 2021, pp: 2031-2036 www.ijaem.net ISSN: 2395-5252

25 6.5 45 12
30 9.5 50 13
35 12 55 15
40 19 60 16
45 25 65 22
50 30 70 45
55 38.5
60 50
65 62.5

Graph of reinforced pavement

Results of plate load test:

TABLE NO 7
Ultimate bearing Readings
Graph of Unreinforced pavement capacity
Unreinforced 49.5
B.Observation table of reinforced pavement: section
TABLE NO 6
Reinforced section 69.3
Load in Settlement of reinforced
(KN) (mm)
Safe bearing capacity KN/M2
0 0
Unreinforced section 22
20 5 KN/M2
25 7 Reinforced section 30.8
30 8 KN/M2
35 9
40 10

Images of plate load test

DOI: 10.35629/5252-030720312036 Impact Factor value 7.429 | ISO 9001: 2008 Certified Journal Page 2035
 International Journal of Advances in Engineering and Management (IJAEM)
Volume 3, Issue 7 July 2021, pp: 2031-2036 www.ijaem.net ISSN: 2395-5252

[7]. Rajagopal, K., Krishnaswamy, N.R., Latha,

G.M., 1999. Behavior of sand confined with
single and multiple geocells. Geotextiles and
Geomembranes.
[8]. Mad L. Al-Quid and John J. Hughes Field
Evaluation of Geocell Use in Flexible
Pavements.

Websites
 www.startaindia.com
 www.prestogeosysteam.com
 www.wikipidia.com
 www.sciencedirect.com
 www.Reserchguides.org.in

VII.CONCLUSION:
At the end of this project we can conclude that by
using geocell in subgrade of flexible pavement we
observed that the increase in safe bearing capacity
and decrease in rate of settlement.
Curve of settlement changes as use of geocell with
soil. We can use geocell where bearing capacity of
soil is very less. So we can increase the service life
of pavement.
With the help of geocell safe bearing capacity
increases up to 1.4 times for C=0 soil
The cost and duration of the construction depends
upon the availability of materials at the site.

REFERENCES
Reference books
[1]. A textbook of “Soli Mechanics” by the
William Lambe & Robert V. Whitman.
[2]. A textbook of “Soil Mechanics and
Foundation Engineering” by DR.K.R.Arora.
[3]. A textbook of “Principles of Foundation
Engineering” by Baraja M.Das.
[4]. IS 1888 (1982): Method of load test on soils
[CED 43: Soil and Foundation Engineering]
International or National Journal Papers
[5]. Acharya, B. (2011). Experimental Study of
Geocell-reinforced Flexible Pavements with
Recycled Asphalt Pavement (RAP) Bases
under Cyclic Loads. MS thesis, CEAE
Department, the University of Kansas
[6]. Pokharel, S.K. (2010). Experimental Study
on Geocell-Reinforced Bases under Static
and Dynamic Loadings. Ph.D. dissertation,
CEAE Department, the University of
Kansas.

DOI: 10.35629/5252-030720312036 Impact Factor value 7.429 | ISO 9001: 2008 Certified Journal Page 2036