Reuse of Waste HDPE Bottle-Derived Geocells for Stabilization of Hilly Roadway Slopes
Authors :- P Bhanwar, S Ahirwar, T Dave
Publication :- Advances in Transportation Geotechnics IV, 2022
Construction of transportation infrastructure in the hilly region is inevitable due to the scarcity of suitable land. Moreover, construction in hilly terrain is challenging due to reduced bearing area, slope failures, excessive lateral deformation, and high differential settlement. Conventional techniques such as gravity retaining walls, reinforced slopes, soil nailing, and gabion walls employed to deal with these issues, usually lack the sustainability approach. A novel and sustainable approach of providing geocellular retention system for the stabilization of hilly roadway slopes is presented here. In this experimental model study, geocellular retention system in a form of a gravity wall was built by zip-tying waste HDPE intravenous fluid bottles-derived geocells with an aspect ratio of 0.85. Stone quarry dust compacted at optimum moisture content was used as infill and backfill material for these geocell-based retention systems. Load-controlled tests were performed in a model test tank to monitor failure load, settlement of slopes and lateral deformations of geocell stabilized and unstabilized slopes at various facing angles. The peak load-carrying capacity of the geocell stabilized slopes was found to be 24, 17.14, and 15.01% relatively more than corresponding unstabilized slopes for facing angles 90˚, 80˚, and 70˚, respectively. Further, peak settlements were observed to be relatively reduced by 17.42, 15.58, and 15.65% along with lateral deformations also relatively reduced by 17.89, 14.73, and 13.93% for geocell stabilized slopes over unstabilized slopes with respective facing angles.