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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Geosynthetics have been in use in civil and environmental engineering for more than three decades. The benefits of geosynthetics are now widely acknowledged and they find applications in a range of industries. Applications in which these materials are being used are also becoming increasingly more challenging, e.g. higher mechanically stabilised earth walls, containment of extremely aggressive chemicals or wastes, and exposure to more challenging climatic conditions, such as arctic climates. The increasing size of the market for implementation of geosynthetic solutions also means that new products are continuously being introduced to the market. Given this background, it is now opportune to reflect on the successful implementation of geosynthetics, particularly examples where successful long-term performance has been demonstrated. This is particularly important in parts of the world where some regulators limit, or even prohibit the use of geosynthetics in some applications because of concerns about durability and long-term performance. There is thus the need to collect examples of applications in which satisfactory long-term performance has been demonstrated.
This Special Issue aims to document examples of proven successful use of geosynthetics in a range of industries and applications. We therefore cordially invite original research and review articles on a wide range of different applications, such as landfills, mine waste storage, transport infrastructure and environmental protection and clean-up, amongst others where successful long-term performance has been demonstrated. Case studies, with supporting documentation are particularly sought, although descriptions of new or novel testing techniques for evaluating likely long-term performance are also welcome.

Prof. Dr. Andy Fourie
Guest Editor

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Keywords

Geosynthetics
Landfills
Waste
Transport
Infrastructure
Durability
Environmental Protection

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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3516 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Experimental Investigations on the Pull-Out Behavior of Tire Strips Reinforced Sands

by Li-Hua Li, Yan-Jun Chen, Pedro Miguel Vaz Ferreira, Yong Liu and Heng-Lin Xiao

Materials 2017, 10(7), 707; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma10070707 - 27 Jun 2017

Cited by 26 | Viewed by 3869

Abstract

Waste tires have excellent mechanical performance and have been used as reinforcing material in geotechnical engineering; however, their interface properties are poorly understood. To further our knowledge, this paper examines the pull-out characteristics of waste tire strips in a compacted sand, together with uniaxial and biaxial geogrids also tested under the same conditions. The analysis of the results shows that the interlocking effect and pull-out resistance between the tire strip and the sand is very strong and significantly higher than that of the geogrids. In the early stages of the pull-out test, the resistance is mainly provided by the front portion of the embedded tire strips, as the pull-out test continues, more and more of the areas towards the end of the tire strips are mobilized, showing a progressive failure mechanism. The deformations are proportional to the frictional resistance between the tire-sand interface, and increase as the normal stresses increase. Tire strips of different wear intensities were tested and presented different pull-out resistances; however, the pull-out resistance mobilization patterns were generally similar. The pull-out resistance values obtained show that rubber reinforcement can provide much higher pull-out forces than the geogrid reinforcements tested here, showing that waste tires are an excellent alternative as a reinforcing system, regardless of the environmental advantages. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Geosynthetics in Civil and Environmental Engineering)

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Review

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4626 KiB

Open AccessReview

Modeling Stone Columns

by Jorge Castro

Materials 2017, 10(7), 782; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma10070782 - 11 Jul 2017

Cited by 39 | Viewed by 7417

Abstract

This paper reviews the main modeling techniques for stone columns, both ordinary stone columns and geosynthetic-encased stone columns. The paper tries to encompass the more recent advances and recommendations in the topic. Regarding the geometrical model, the main options are the “unit cell”, longitudinal gravel trenches in plane strain conditions, cylindrical rings of gravel in axial symmetry conditions, equivalent homogeneous soil with improved properties and three-dimensional models, either a full three-dimensional model or just a three-dimensional row or slice of columns. Some guidelines for obtaining these simplified geometrical models are provided and the particular case of groups of columns under footings is also analyzed. For the latter case, there is a column critical length that is around twice the footing width for non-encased columns in a homogeneous soft soil. In the literature, the column critical length is sometimes given as a function of the column length, which leads to some disparities in its value. Here it is shown that the column critical length mainly depends on the footing dimensions. Some other features related with column modeling are also briefly presented, such as the influence of column installation. Finally, some guidance and recommendations are provided on parameter selection for the study of stone columns. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Geosynthetics in Civil and Environmental Engineering)

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