As a kind of building material, geotechnical materials have been used in European and American engineering buildings as early as the 1950s. Today, geotechnical products have developed into eight series: geotextiles, geogrids, geonets, geomatics(geosynthetic clay liner), geomembranes, geocells, geocomposite materials, and other related new geosynthetic products.
Geocells has become more and more popular worldwide since the 1980s and are used in more and more projects such as road base project, shallow foundation treatment, slope anti-scour, and large urban pipeline support.
Compared with other geotechnical materials such as geotextiles and geogrids, in the construction of geocells, due to their three-dimensional structure, by changing the height of the cells or the combination type of the cell plates, completely different plates with rigid and semi-rigid properties can be obtained. This multi-choice method provides more space for solving engineering problems.
Geocells have the best load-bearing and impact resistance properties. Under the action of larger static load, dynamic load, and cyclic load, the performance of the cell is generally not affected. And it can be used in engineering casting, which is fast and efficient and has a particularly prominent role in areas where road construction materials are scarce.
Geocells can be used in all kinds of projects, not only because of their low price and simple manufacture, but also because of their high-quality isolation, reinforcement, and protection functions. Also, it is can be transported more because of its folded package. It can cope with the different needs of projects with complex changes in difficulty and achieve the purpose of engineering requirements with guaranteed quality and quantity.
Introduction: what is the geocell?
Geocell is a two-dimensional or three-dimensional mesh cell structure formed by high-strength HDPE copolymer broadband through strong welding, ultrasonic welding, riveting, and buckle. The geocell can be retracted, and the foldable packaging is convenient for transportation and saves transportation costs. Geocells can be filled with earth, rock, or concrete to form a structure with strong lateral restraint and high stiffness. Besides, the geocell can also be used as a cushion, which can increase the bearing capacity of the foundation in the treatment of soft soil foundation and can also be laid on the slope surface to form a slope protection structure to protect the stability of the slope surface and prevent soil erosion, etc. It can also be used to build support structures, etc.
Features of the Geocell
1. It has the ability to expand and contract and can be retracted for transportation. It can be stretched into a mesh during construction and filled with loose materials such as soil, gravel, and concrete to form a structure with strong lateral restraint and high rigidity.
2. The material of Geocell is light but has great wear tensile strength, and stable chemical properties, It can be UV resistant (ant-aging property)and has a long service time which can be up to 70 years, and it is resistant to acid and alkali, and is suitable for different soil conditions such as different soils and deserts.
3. High lateral limit and anti-skid, anti-deformation properties, which can improve and enhance the bearing capacity of the roadbed and disperse the load, and enhance the strength of the road.
4. The geocells’ height, welding distance, and other geometric dimensions can be changed as the project rule, which can meet different engineering needs and rules.
5. The geocells have the following advantages such as free expansion and contraction, small transportation volume; convenient connection, and fast construction speed.
the main application of Geocell
1. The Geocell can be used to stabilize road base projects and railway subgrades project
2. The geocell can be used for the management of embankments and shallow water channels that bear the load.
3. The geocell can be used in a Hybrid retaining wall used to prevent landslides and load gravity.
4. The geocell can be used in soft ground treatment projects, It can help reduce the labor intensity of construction a lot, reduce the thickness of the roadbed, and fasten the construction speed, the geocells’ performance is good, and the project cost is reduced.
Engineering application
Which projects will be the geotextile used for?
1. Treatment of semi-filled and semi-excavated subgrades.
When building an embankment on a slope whose natural slope is steeper than 1:5, the base of the embankment should be dug with steps, and the width of the steps should not be less than 1M. When excavating steps, the width of high-grade highway steps is generally 2M. Geocells are laid on the level surface of each layer of steps, and the geocell’s own façade reinforcement effect is used to better solve the problem of uneven subsidence.
2. Subgrade in a sandy area
The subgrade in the sandy area should be a low embankment, and the filling height is generally not less than 0.3M. Due to the professional requirements of low subgrade and heavy load for the subgrade construction in the sandy area, the use of geocells can limit the loose filler. The guaranteed subgrade has high stiffness and strength within a limited height to withstand the load stress of large vehicles.
3. Reinforcement of backfill roadbed
The use of geocells can better achieve the purpose of reinforcement on the back of the platform. Enough friction can be generated between the geocells and the filler, which can reduce the uneven settlement between the subgrade and the structure, and finally can ease the “abutment jumping”. Early impact damage to the bridge deck due to “car” disease.
4. Subgrade in permafrost areas
When building fills subgrades in permafrost areas, the smallest fill height should be reached to prevent the occurrence of slurry churn or the lowering of the upper limit of the frozen layer, resulting in excessive settlement of the embankment. The unique façade reinforcement effect of the geocell and the confinement of the effective implementation can ensure the smallest filling height in some special sections to the greatest extent, and make the filling have high-quality strength and rigidity.
5. Loess Collapsible Subgrade Treatment
When expressways and first-class highways pass through collapsible losses with good compressibility, or when the allowable bearing capacity of the foundation of a high embankment is lower than the pressure of the cooperative load of vehicles and the self-weight of the embankment, the embankment will also be adjusted according to the bearing capacity requirements. Now, the superiority of the geocell is manifested.
6. Saline soil, expansive soil
The highways, first-class highways, road shoulders, and slopes built with saline soil and expansive soil adopt reinforcement measures. The facade reinforcement effect of the cell is the most excellent of all reinforcement materials, and it has excellent corrosion resistance. It can meet the requirements of building high-grade highways in saline soil and expansive soil.
In rainy seasons, you can often see information about mudslides, floods, and other disasters in the news. The frequent occurrence of natural disasters reminds human beings that destroying the environment can only suffer the consequences in the end! Vegetation damage cannot be repaired in a short period of time. How do deal with the situation in road construction? The geocell came into being and has become an indispensable part of the stable greening of the roadbed!
Solve erosion protection, lining stability, and water flow control. Due to the constraints of the honeycomb structure of the geocell, the hydraulic performance of traditional materials such as aggregates, rip rap, and plants have been improved.
The flexible and durable armored canal lining formed by concrete infill is less expensive than a hinged modular system.
Design in consideration of specific site conditions such as local environmental protection, ecological and aesthetic requirements, smallest expected flow, and related hydraulic stress.
This is reflected in the fact that the geocell can be stretched, can be retracted during transportation, and can be stretched into a mesh during construction, filled with loose materials such as soil, gravel, and concrete to form a structure with strong lateral constraints and high rigidity. At the same time, the geocell is light in the material, wear-resistant, stable in chemical properties, resistant to light and oxygen aging, acid, and alkali, and is suitable for soil conditions such as different soils and deserts. Besides, the geocell has a high lateral limit, and anti-skid, and anti-deformation enhances the bearing capacity of the roadbed and disperses the load. Besides, the geocell has strong flexibility, which can change the geometric dimensions such as the height of the geocell, welding distance, etc., it can expand and contract, the transportation volume is small, the connection is convenient, and the construction speed is fast, and the price of the geocell is not expensive. engineering needs.
Ecological protection is a new model of highway construction in my country. This concept of combining environmental protection and sustainable development is needed and has far-reaching significance. The application of geocells is a good start. It is a form of ecological protection. As a good material for stabilizing roadbeds and slope greening, it solves the two major problems of slope protection and slope greening. It is cheap and efficient, Sexuality, and environmental sustainability.
