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Performance Enhancement of a Retaining Wall with Geofoam Laid in Different Orientations

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Abstract

Geofoam, when substituting soil, reduces lateral static load due to its lightweight and compressible nature. The alignment and the orientation of the geofoam greatly affect the deflection of the wall. This paper investigates the influence of different geofoam orientations on the load-deformation characteristics of the reinforced retaining wall. Static load tests were performed when sand or geomaterial prepared from sand, bottom ash, and plastic strips were used as a backfill material. Different orientations were explored when geofoam of densities 11D, 16D, and 34D where D is the density of geofoam were laid in different directions. A layer of compressible inclusion with a thickness of 10 cm was laid either in the vertical direction alone or in both vertical and horizontal directions. Another option was to use a 10-cm-thick geofoam laid in the vertical direction and geofoam strips of thickness 2, 3, or 5 cm laid in layers. The reinforcement effect was analyzed using bearing capacity ratio, vertical displacement reduction, and wall deflection reduction. Results indicated that higher-density geofoam is more efficient in reducing settlement values and increasing bearing capacity. Lower-density geofoam excelled in wall deflection reduction. The most substantial improvements were observed for 10-cm-thick 16D geofoam laid in the vertical direction, accompanied by 5-cm-thick strips laid in three layers in the horizontal direction. This combination reduced the settlement and wall deflection to 78.23% and 98.81%, respectively.

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Data Availability

The authors declare that all data supporting the findings of this study are available within the manuscript. Data supporting the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, Ms. Khushboo Vishwakarma.

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Acknowledgements

The paper’s authors are thankful to the Applied Mechanics Section, Civil Engineering Department, Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, Surat, for all the valuable support and for making us available with the equipment and laboratory for the conduct of the tests. The author appreciates the efforts made by Mr. Rishabh Sarve for the conduct of the test. The author would like to thank KDM Chemicals and Research Pvt. Ltd., DIRK Pvt. Ltd and Raviraj Polymers for the supply of plastic strips, bottom ash, and geofoam for the conduct of tests.

Funding

The research leading to these results received funding from TEQIP, the All-India Council for Technical Education, Government of India, for significant financial support for the current study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, Surat, 395007, India

    Khushboo Vishwakarma & Shruti Shukla

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  1. Khushboo Vishwakarma
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  2. Shruti Shukla
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Contributions

Design of the work, data collection, methodology, collection of samples, procurement of materials, sizing of material, testing, data analysis, and interpretation, drafting of the article was performed by Khushboo Vishwakarma. Funding acquisition, critical revision of the article, and final approval of the version to be published were carried out by Dr. Shruti Shukla.

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Correspondence to Khushboo Vishwakarma.

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Vishwakarma, K., Shukla, S. Performance Enhancement of a Retaining Wall with Geofoam Laid in Different Orientations. Transp. Infrastruct. Geotech. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40515-024-00401-x

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