Fabrication and Testing of Low Strength Geocells Using 3D Printed Polypropylene Sheets

Geocells are being extensively used in road and rail embankments, pavements and retaining structures. Research on the cyclic load performance of these structures is heavily based on reduced scale model tests coupled with numerical modelling. Most of the available model studies on geocell-reinforced structures use prototype geocells or geocells made using nonwoven geotextiles or geonets due to the unavailability of low strength geocells in the market. Such studies suffer from many limitations that arise due to discrepancies in geometric scaling, texture and mechanical response. Hence, 3D printing, which enables the manufacturing of geosynthetics with optimized configurations, customized texture and mechanical properties holds great promise in producing low strength geocells for reduced scale model tests. This study demonstrates the applicability of 3D printing technique for manufacturing customized geocells using polypropylene (PP) sheets. Wide-width tension tests, junction strength tests and interface shear tests were carried out on 3D printed geocells. Through these tests combined with PIV analysis, it is shown that the geocells fabricated by ultrasonically welding the 3D printed polypropylene sheets could closely replicate the tensile and interface shear behaviour of the commercial geocells.