Geocell mechanical properties under temperature influence

To investigate the effects of high and low temperature environments on the mechanical properties of geocells with different materials, three commonly used geocell materials including HDPE, PET and PP were selected as research objects. High- and low-temperature tensile tests were conducted to analyze the temperature response laws of their strip tensile strength, joint strength, stiffness and failure modes. The results show that the strip tensile strength and stiffness of the three types of geocells are negatively correlated with temperature, while the elongation is positively correlated with temperature. HDPE shows the highest temperature sensitivity, while PP has the best high-temperature stability. The joint failure of HDPE is always controlled by peeling strength; for PET and PP, the bearing capacity is governed by shear strength/peeling strength and splitting strength/peeling strength under low and high temperature conditions, respectively. Additionally, the failure modes show an obvious plastic-brittle transition with changing temperature. This study clarifies the differences in high- and low-temperature performance of geocells with different materials, which can provide an important theoretical basis and engineering reference for the mechanical calculation, material selection and protection design of geocell reinforcement engineering in high- and low-temperature regions.