How to compact Geocell? When infill material is Gravel.
Hello,I’d like to have some information to use geocell to build a small parking and a driveway.
The idea would be to lay a geotextile with geogrids on top; on top of the geogrids I would put geocells and fill them with crushed gravel.
I’m skeptical that such a solution would work; I think that the gravel wouldn’t interlock with each other and wouldn’t form a solid surface to drive on. I believe that the gravel might roll while a wheel of a car passes by. Should I be afraid of that?
Is there a way to mitigate or eliminate this risk?
For your above concern, I consulted with our engineer, and our engineer said you should pay attention to below 2 points.
1, Use the infill of grvel particle size less than 5cm. And mix different sizes of gravel(from 1cm to 5cm) to infill the cells.
2, Overfill all the cells for 5-8cm. After this has been accomplished a vibratory roller is used to get the desired compaction. Typical compaction is done with a 9-ton roller.
In this way, the gravel will not roll while the car wheels pass by. And the Geocell solution has been proven by thousands of projects.
And I told this customer: You do not need to be afraid, because Geocell is a 3D cellular confinement system, it can effectively reduce vertical differential settlement into soft subgrades, improve shear strength, and enhance the load-bearing capacity. It also can prevent the lateral displacement of infill and reduces vertical deflections even on low-strength subgrades while reducing the amount of aggregate material required to extend the service life of roads.
Geocell not only can build small packing and driveways, we have other customers who also use our Geocell to build container yards and hauling roads. So I shared some of the projects for their reference. If you also have interests, please let Claire know freely.
