Abstracto

INTERFACIAL FRICTION PROPERTIES OF GEOCELL REINFORCED SAND

Manju G S, Gali Madhavi Latha

Modified direct shear tests were carried out to investigate the interface shear properties of sand-geocell interfaces. Two different geonets with high contrast in tensile strength properties and aperture size were used to fabricate geocells. Geocells were fabricated using geonets by hand stitching in case of weaker geonet and by connecting with steel wire in case of stronger geonet. Effects of geocell pocket size on the interface shear properties was investigated for both types of geocells. Three different geocell arrangements of cell diameter 150mm, 100mm and 75mm were used in the tests. Results showed that sand-geocell interfaces showed adhesion unlike the sand alone interface, which only exhibited interfacial friction. It was observed that the tensile stiffness of geocell material plays significant role in governing the interface friction characteristics of geocell reinforced sand, apart from the pocket size of cells.