(I) Stabilizing Highway and Railway Roadbeds
Geocells perform excellently in stabilizing highway and railway roadbeds. They can generate high elastic force and a solid roadbed. Compared with the traditional stone foundation, they can reduce the thickness of the foundation by more than 50%. In railway roadbeds, they can prevent the lateral movement of crushed stones and graded aggregates, making the whole structure more solid and preventing water pumping. Even when the foundation is soft, they can prevent the entire or partial collapse. In areas with heavy traffic such as intersections, branch roads and turning lanes, they can significantly increase the service life. According to statistics, in a certain railway project, after using geocells to stabilize the roadbed, the stability of the roadbed was increased by 40%, greatly reducing the later maintenance costs.
(II) Structures for Bearing Loads
Geocells also play an important role in aspects such as embankments, retaining walls, river regulation, supporting pipelines and sewers. When used for embankments and retaining walls, they can define and reinforce the crushed stone area, form a consistent structure, resist lateral pressure, and can adjust themselves regardless of stratum sliding and cohesion. They can support non-structural surfaces and natural vegetation layers and can be designed vertically or in a stepped manner. In river regulation, the three-dimensional square grids strengthen the filling force, prevent soil erosion and increase the load-bearing capacity. They can reduce the construction cost of shallow rivers and allow the design of river crossings to meet various engineering structures of traffic and soil conditions. When used for supporting pipelines and sewers, there is no need to excavate and place a large number of stones as the supporting structure for pipe beds or sewers. By using conventional materials, a solid and durable overall slab structure can be formed to provide flexible protection for pipelines, reduce the slight subsidence caused by long-term use, make the foundation of pipelines more solid, and prevent local collapses for a long time.
(III) Preventing Landslides and Hybrid Retaining Walls
When geocells are used for preventing landslides and hybrid retaining walls bearing loads, without using formwork, a solid wall surface can be created and firmly integrated with the backfill. Even when traditional gravity structures cannot be used, the backfill can use local materials, significantly reducing the project cost. In some landslide treatment projects in mountainous areas, the use of geocells has effectively prevented mountain landslides and ensured the life and property safety of surrounding residents.
(IV) Treatment of Soft Subgrades in Expressways
When encountering soft subgrades in expressways, using geocells can greatly reduce the labor intensity of construction and the thickness of the roadbed. The construction speed is fast and the performance is good, which can greatly reduce the project cost. Secondly, the road construction process is simple and easy to implement and can use local materials quickly, which is especially important in areas lacking road construction materials. For example, in a certain expressway soft subgrade treatment project, after using geocells, the construction period was shortened by 30% and the project cost was reduced by 25%.
(V) Treatment of Railway Subgrade Bed Diseases
In the treatment of railway subgrade bed diseases, under the action of train loads, the weak subgrade bed soil will undergo shear deformation, the loaded part will sink, and it will bulge and extrude towards both sides of the ballast bed. By using geocells and placing them on the upper part of the subgrade bed to bear the loads transferred from the ballast bed, the stress and deformation effects of the loads on the soil layer under the geocells can be reduced. In this way, only the part of the soft soil in the subgrade bed equivalent to the depth of the geocells needs to be excavated, and there is no need to deepen the side ditches. It can greatly reduce the construction difficulty, shorten the construction period and save investment.
(VI) Slope and Embankment Protection
When used for slope protection, the unfolded cell walls form layers of retaining walls, which can greatly slow down the flow velocity of water and avoid the formation of slope runoff. The cells can be filled with soil, and grass and shrubs can be planted on them. Even when the original slope cannot restore vegetation, an ideal greening effect can also be achieved, which has inestimable environmental protection value. In addition, because geocells have integrity and a certain degree of flexibility, they greatly make up for the defects such as loosening, collapse and overhead of rubble skeleton protection. Moreover, the construction is fast and the cost is low, so they are a very ideal geosynthetic material for slope protection.
(VII) Retaining Walls and River Cofferdams
When using geocells to build retaining walls, the structural stability is good, which can prevent the surface of steep slopes from being eroded by rainwater. Compared with concrete walls, the cost is reduced by more than 50%, and at the same time, flowers and plants can be planted on the surface to beautify the environment. In river cofferdams, geocells can also play an important role in improving the stability of the cofferdam and its resistance to water flow impact.
(VIII) Road Construction in Deserts and Applications in Intertidal Zone Roads
In desert road construction, geocells can be directly pulled open and placed on the desert and fixed, and then sand and stones can be filled in using local materials. The operation is simple and the efficiency is high. The road surface after construction can meet the long-term use of various heavy vehicles. In addition, when used as a temporary exploration road in the desert, it can be reused. On intertidal zone roads, geotextiles are first laid flat on the beach, and then geocells are placed on them. After being fixed and filled with sand and stone materials and compacted, they can become roads, and even if the tide submerges them, it will not affect the strength of the roads.
