Evaluation of geosynthetic reinforcement in unpaved road using moving wheel load test

• Published in: Geotextiles and geomembranes Vol. 50; no. 4; pp. 581 - 589
• Main Authors: Singh, Meenakshi, Trivedi, Ashutosh, Shukla, Sanjay Kumar
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Essex Elsevier Ltd 01.08.2022; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Asphalt pavements; Deformation effects; Fatigue failure; Geogrid; Geosynthetics; Geotechnical fabrics; Geotextile; Load; Load tests; Moving wheel load test; Pavements; Performance indices; Reinforced concrete; Reinforcement; Road tests; Roads & highways; Rut depth; Soils; Unpaved road; Unpaved roads; Unpaved road; Geotextile; Moving wheel load test; Geogrid; Rut depth
• ISSN: 0266-1144; 1879-3584
• DOI: 10.1016/j.geotexmem.2022.02.005

The common cause of failure of the unpaved road is associated with undesirable ruts and deformations. Use of geosynthetic reinforcement is a solution to this pavement distress problem as experienced in limited research works, especially in the laboratory studies. This study presents the performance of geosynthetic-reinforced unpaved roads subjected to moving wheel load tests to investigate the effect of geosynthetic reinforcement on the pavement surface deformation of the unpaved roads. Unreinforced and geosynthetic-reinforced unpaved road test sections consisting of varied reinforcements were constructed in a test pit, 9 m long and 2.7 m wide. Geogrid and geotextile were used for reinforcing the unpaved road test sections. The rut depth was measured in the transverse direction of the wheel path after certain number of wheel passes. Traffic Benefit Ratio (TBR) and Performance Index (PI) were employed in the study for the evaluation of the effectiveness of geosynthetic reinforcement in unpaved roads. After 350 vehicle passes, the geotextile-reinforced and geogrid-reinforced test sections get rutting reduced by 44.89% and 28.57%, respectively. The test results indicate that inclusion of geosynthetic reinforcement significantly improves the rutting resistance and stability of reinforced test sections compared to the unreinforced test sections. •Geosynthetic reinforcement improves the performance of unpaved road by reducing surface deformation significantly.•Moving wheel load tests were carried out to evaluate the performance of unpaved test sections in terms of rut depth.•Unreinforced test section exhibited significantly greater surface deformation than the reinforced test section.•Traffic Benefit Ratio and Performance Index were employed to quantify the effectiveness of geosynthetic reinforcement.