3D-printed geocells in footing systems: A comprehensive physical and numerical studies on scaling and performance under centric and eccentric loading scenarios

The complexities of scaling have long presented challenges in applying small-scale test results of geocell-reinforced footings to field conditions in geosynthetic engineering. There has been no research that thoroughly examines the scaling of both geometry and material stiffness in geocell-reinforced footing systems although limited studies have attempted to scale geocells using alternative materials with lower strength, such as simile paper, non-woven geotextile etc. Therefore, this is a leading study to address the complexities of scaling using 3D-printing technology, where both geometry and tensile stiffness of geocell were accurately scaled using scaling laws. In the present study, the impact of scaling on the performance of strip footings reinforced with both traditional fabricated and 3D-printed geocells in terms of pressure-settlement response and improvement factors were assessed. The results indicated that 3D-printed geocells offered significant advantages in customization and rapid prototyping of field scale. Specifically, the strip footings reinforced with fabricated geocells showed up to 65% higher improvement factors in both loose and dense soils compared to those using the scaled 3D-printed geocells. Furthermore, the footings reinforced with scaled geocells using 3D-printing technologies closely aligned with existing large-scale test results regarding improvement factors, which were further validated through various numerical analyses. These findings offer new perspectives for optimizing and applying 3D-printed geocells in geotechnical engineering and address the longstanding challenge of scaling geocell-reinforcement systems in small-scale model tests.