An analysis of stresses and behaviors in the geotextile-reinforced soil structures

The use of geotextile as reinforcing materials in soil structures has become widespread throughout the world. Geotextile reinforcement has been used in retaining walls, roadbed, embankment stabilization and especially reinforcement of soft foundation, and so on. In the past, however, its design and construction have been performed empirically. In this study, laboratory model tests were carried out in order to investigate the effects of geotextile reinforcement on vertical and horizontal displacement and other characteristics in soft foundations. The experiments were executed in eight treatments; no geotextile between embankment and subsoils, and seven geotextiles with different tensile strength. And such factors as the loading conditions, the tensile strength of geotextiles, the ingredient of geotextiles and the elapsed time were investigated in this study. And the analytical method were executed in order to study the stress and behavior of geotextile-reinforced soil structure by the nonlinear elasto-plastic finite element model. Geotextile reinforcement reduced the effects of banking loads on subsoils more effectively with the increase of their tensile strength. As the tensile strength of geotextiles was increased, the rate of the initial vertical displacements of loading plate was reduced inverse proportional to loads. However, the effect of loading was reduced when the loads exceeded certain limits. The effects of reinforcement of nonwoven geotextile was 1.5-4.5 times larger than that of the woven geotextile with equivalent tensile strength. The increased bearing capacity and the reduced settlement are proportional as the tensile strength of geotextile. The settlement at the long time loading were developed, almost all were completed after 10 days and the additional settlement were not developed since then. The nonlinear elasto-plastic finite element method are accurate to predict the stresses and behavior of geotextile-reinforced soil structures