Model Footing Tests and Analytical Studies on Clayey Soil Bed Reinforced with Coconut Shell Mat

Abstract

The cellular confinement systems are becoming popular in ground improvement because of their efficiency in improving the bearing capacity of soil due to the lateral confinement effect. The commercially available geocells are made from polymer materials and they are costly. This study presents the performance evaluation of coconut shell mat as a cellular confinement system in clayey soil. It is the first of its kind application of coconut shells for soil reinforcement through a lateral confinement mechanism. This soil reinforcement system using coconut shells is termed “Geococoshell” by the authors. A series of model plate load tests were conducted on unreinforced soil, soil reinforced with High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) geocells, and soil reinforced with coconut shell mats to evaluate the performance of coconut shell mat reinforced soil bed. The results of the experiments showed that coconut shells reinforced clayey soil improved bearing capacity up to 1.5 times compared to HDPE geocell reinforced clayey bed. The effect of different patterns of placing coconut shell mat was also studied and discussed in the paper. The analytical studies have been conducted considering the reinforcement mechanisms of coconut shell mat embedded in the soil bed. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.