Abstract
Advantageous aspects of sandwich-type reinforced earth structures combined with geosynthetics and sand mat are highlighted in this paper. Those aspects were elucidated by two kinds of laboratory tests : (1) large consolidation tests for improvement of hydraulic conductivity and (2) model footing tests on improvement of bearing capacity and deformation characteristics for reinforced earth structures, including both vertical permeability and horizontal transmissibility characteristics of geosynthetics results from both laboratory tests indicated the following:
i) Hydraulic conductivity of geosynthetics used for this type of earth reinforcement can be maintained for a long period. Such conductivity sometimes disappears, particularly because of clogging when geosynthetics are adopted in embankment construction using fine-grained soils. This fact indicates that the sand mats which are laid above and beneath geosynthetics play a salient role in preventing clogging of geosynthetics that occurs by intrusion of fines from cohesive soils.
ii) Sandwich-type reinforcement combined with geosynthetics and sand mats increases stability and decreases deformation of earth structures. In particular, the sandwich structure is effective for providing toughness, which has remained an important issue for reducing infrastructural maintenance and costs.
In the later part of the paper, conventionally available stability analysis was carried out to propose the design procedure for reinforced earth structures and at the same time numerical analysis was also conducted to ensure the applicability of the hybrid-sandwiched earth reinforcement newly proposed in the current paper.
Finally, based on the horizontal placement by means of HBS described in the current paper, the vertical drain procedure using the sandwich structures for accelerating consolidation and increasing stability of soft soils is also suggested for the future research and investigation.
