Geocell Reinforcement in Pavement Construction: A Critical Review

Construction of pavement over poor subgrade is a significant concern of transportation engineering. Various techniques have been applied to get rid of this problem. One such method is using geosynthetic material in different pavement layers. Among all geosynthetic materials, the application of geocell is one of the promising mechanisms for soil reinforcement because of its confining effect. Many researchers have conducted various studies on geocells for reinforcing pavements and got promising results in terms of traffic benefit ratio, modulus improvement factor, percentage reduction in settlement, reduction in base course thickness, etc. This paper deals with the studies made on applications of geocells in the pavement. A detailed analysis of the character studies and laboratory tests, including settlement analysis, rutting effect, and comparative studies among different geosynthetic materials, has been discussed here. Some field tests and numerical analyses following the present research trends are also being considered in this paper.