Experimental and numerical studies on geotextile reinforced subgrade soil

Experimental and numerical studies were undertaken to study the effect of geotextile used for subgrade reinforcement. The standard laboratory California bearing ratio (CBR) test was conducted on the soil reinforced with geotextile. Two different types of subgrade soil, sandy and clayey soil, and two types of geotextiles (woven and non-woven) were used in this study. The geotextile reinforcements were placed in samples in various combinations in one, two and three layers. The effects of type of geotextile and position and number of geotextile layers on the strength of subgrade were investigated. An increase in CBR value was observed due to the inclusion of woven geotextile reinforcement in the subgrade. It was also observed that woven geotextile performed better than non-woven geotextile. Finite-element program ABACUS is also used to back analyse the experimentally calculated CBR values and found to be in good agreement with experimental results.