Performance Evaluation of Coir-Made Geocells in Granular Soil Mass: An Experimental Study

Geocells are a three-dimensional soil reinforcement technique that offers faster, cheaper solutions to many complex geotechnical problems. In this system, soils inside the pocket of the geocell restrain each other in all directions through cellular confinement, which substantially improves the composite behaviour of reinforcement and infill soils, which acts as a rigid slab base above the subsoil material. This present study provides an overview of the performance evaluation by analysing load-settlement curves of a coir geocell-reinforced granular soil bed. In accordance with the aim, a series of model plate load tests were conducted to investigate the result of the formulated cellular reinforcement embedment depth and width on soil bearing capacity. The test beds were subjected to monotonic loading with a circular model footing. The affecting variables in these investigations were four different ug/D ratios, ranging 0–1, and five different bg/D ratios, ranging 1–5. Results show that configurations of ug/D = 0.05 and bg/D of 4 show optimal performance with as high as a threefold increase in bearing capacity compared to the unreinforced configuration. The findings indicated that the configured cellular reinforcement significantly enhanced the soil’s load-bearing capacity.