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Effectiveness of Double-Layer HDPE Geocell System to Reinforce Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP)-Base Layer

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Advances in Transportation Geotechnics IV

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering ((LNCE,volume 164))

Abstract

Geocell has been used for reinforcing foundation soil, stabilizing slopes, construction of retaining walls, and unpaved roads, but limited information is available about the construction of structural/flexible pavement with geocell. It can provide additional confinement for the infill material, which allows the use of recycled material in the base layer. Reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) often has adequate stiffness in terms of modulus of resilience, but excessive permanent deformation under repeated loading restricts the use of 100% RAP in the pavement. Though some studies are available regarding the use of geocell with RAP for unpaved roads, there are no established methods or guidelines available for the design and construction of geocell-reinforced structural pavement, especially with multi-layer geocell system. The main objective of this study is to design and construct a pavement section with a double-layer geocell system with RAP and monitor its field performance. A two-lane two-way road in Venus, Texas, which was suffering from cracking and rutting problems, was selected for the construction of the test section using geocell filled with RAP material. Earth pressure cells and shape array sensors were also installed to monitor the performance of the test section. Results obtained from the field show that the use of geocell can reduce the average vertical stress at the bottom of the reinforced base layer by 48%. Performance of the double-layer HDPE geocell system incorporated in the flexible pavement bases with RAP material was found to be satisfactory with no significant deformation or cracking recorded during the first year of monitoring.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT)—Fort Worth district (Mr. Richard Williammee, P.E. and Mr. Paul Spraggins, P.E.) and NSF Industry-University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) program funded ‘Center for Integration of Composites into Infrastructure (CICI)’ site at TAMU (NSF PD: Dr. Prakash Balan; Award #2017796). The authors would like to thank their support. The authors also like to express sincere gratitude to the Geo Products, LLC, for providing Envirogrid geocells for the research. The authors would further like to express their sincere gratitude to the TxDOT construction crew, Dr. Sayantan Chakraborty and other members of UTA- SARCI group for their help during the construction phase.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

    Md. Ashrafuzzaman Khan, Nripojyoti Biswas, Surya Sarat Chandra Congress & Anand J. Puppala

  2. University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware, USA

    Aritra Banerjee

Authors
  1. Md. Ashrafuzzaman Khan
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  2. Nripojyoti Biswas
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  3. Aritra Banerjee
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  4. Surya Sarat Chandra Congress
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  5. Anand J. Puppala
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anand J. Puppala .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA

    Erol Tutumluer

  2. Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX, USA

    Soheil Nazarian

  3. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA

    Imad Al-Qadi

  4. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA

    Issam I.A. Qamhia

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Khan, M.A., Biswas, N., Banerjee, A., Congress, S.S.C., Puppala, A.J. (2022). Effectiveness of Double-Layer HDPE Geocell System to Reinforce Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP)-Base Layer. In: Tutumluer, E., Nazarian, S., Al-Qadi, I., Qamhia, I.I. (eds) Advances in Transportation Geotechnics IV. Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, vol 164. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77230-7_45

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77230-7_45

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