Evaluation of a calculation method for embankments reinforced with geocells over soft soils using finite-element analysis

This study addressed the analysis of geocells as basal reinforcement for embankments on soft soils. The equation proposed for this application is based on a previously developed method for predicting the bearing capacity of geocell-reinforced soils, which considers the characteristics of the founding strata, geocell in-fill soil, geometry of the geocell mattress, the slope angle and load from the embankment. The proposed method considers the factor of safety of the unreinforced system calculated by two methods, to which a term that is dependent on the geocell reinforcement is added to obtain the factor of safety for the reinforced system. The application of the method is demonstrated by an example using two different analytical methods for determining the factor of safety of the unreinforced system. The results thus obtained were compared with those from a three-dimensional finite element computer analysis for both unreinforced and reinforced cases.