Experimental and Numerical Analysis of Soil-Geosynthetic Composite for a Geosynthetic-Reinforced Roadway System

The present research conducted tests to evaluate the reinforcing performance of geosynthetics including three geogrids (GG1, GG2, and GG3) and one geotextile (GT) for three different soil types – sand, clay, and red shale. All geosynthetics showed great improvement under the lowest confining pressure. The report concluded that between the Large-Scale Direct Shear test, the Large-Scale Pullout Box, and the FLAC simulation, the three geogrids showed the greatest improvement when conducted with sand. The sand could withstand a much greater normal pressure than either clay or red shale. The biaxial geogrids, GG1 and GG3, had ideal results for lower stress application. The clay showed that while not one geosynthetic was clearly better than another, the geotextile produced the best results at low pressure. The red shale showed that generally the three geogrids worked better, specifically GG2 and GG3 with their smaller aperture size. Advisors: Jongwan Eun and Seunghee Ki