Effects of Geosynthetic Reinforcement Type on the Strength and Stiffness of Reinforced Sand in Plane Strain Compression

The effects of geosynthetic reinforcement type on the strength and stiffness of reinforced sand were evaluated by performing a series of drained plane strain compression tests on large sand specimens. The reinforcement type is described in terms of the degree of unification of the constituting components (for geocomposites) as well as the tensile strength and stiffness, the covering ratio and others (for geocomposites and geogrids). Sand specimens reinforced with different geosynthetic reinforcement types exhibited significantly different reinforcing effects. A geocomposite made of a woven geotextile sheet sandwiched firmly with two sheets of non-woven geotextile, having a 100% effective covering ratio, exhibited reinforcing effects higher than typical stiff and strong geogrids. With some geocomposite types, the reinforcing effects increase substantially by better unifying longitudinally arranged stiff and strong yarns and non-woven geotextile sheets. When fixed firm to the yarns, the non-woven geotextile sheets function like the transversal members of a geogrid by locally transmitting load activated by interaction with the backfill to the yarns. These geocomposites can exhibit reinforcing effects equivalent to those with stiff and strong geogrids. Local strain fields of the specimens are presented to show that, for reinforced sand, the peak stress state reached is always associated with the development of shear band(s) in the sand and a higher peak strength is achieved when the strain localisation starts at a larger global axial strain due to better reinforcing effects.

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