Evaluation of required stiffness and strength of cellular geosynthetics

Cellular geosynthetics have been widely used in engineering practices for their enhanced confining effects. However, limited research has been reported on methods of evaluating the required stiffness and strength of cellular geosynthetics based on the strength of geosynthetic-encased soil in engineering practices. In this study, an analytical approach was formulated to estimate the required stiffness and strength of cellular geosynthetics based on the equivalent strength of geosynthetic–soil composites considering soil nonlinearity, soil plasticity, soil dilatancy, and soil–geosynthetic interaction. Large-scale triaxial compression tests on geosynthetic-encased sand were performed to validate the effectiveness of the method. Parametric studies were conducted using the validated method to investigate the effects of nonlinear elastic parameters, the peak strength of the infill soil, and the aperture size of cellular geosynthetics on the required stiffness and strength.