Elasto-Plastic Behavior of Jute-Geocell-Reinforced Sand Subgrade

In this research, a series of large-scale repeated plate load tests were carried out on jute-geocell-reinforced sand subgrades for low-volume road applications. The jute material obtained from waste gunny bags was used to prepare geocells and planar geojute to test under repeated load low-volume traffic conditions. Sand subgrades were prepared in a steel test tank of size 1 m×1 m×1 m at its 30% to replicate a weak subgrade. The elasto-plastic behavior of the jute-geocell-reinforced beds was investigated by varying the height and width of the geocell mattress, infill material (sand and aggregate), and infill density. The performance improvement in terms of traffic benefit ratio, TBR, and cumulative plastic deformation (CPD) were determined. The load was applied through a circular steel plate, which replicates a passenger car's single axle wheel, through a sophisticated double-acting linear dynamic actuator that is attached to a 3.5 m high reaction frame. Results show that the CPDs were higher for weaker subgrades than the stiffer ones. The traffic benefit ratios were observed to be as high as 56 with jute-geocell subgrades with aggregate infill. It was observed that the performance of jute geocell is inferior when used with sand infil