Experimental and Artificial Neural Network Analysis of Geocell Reinforcement on Deformation and Vertical Stress Distribution of Quarry Waste Base

The fines produced while crushing limestone aggregates can be used as a base course material for highway construction. This study presents the effect of geocell in reinforcing quarry waste base. The parameters investigated in this study included geocell height and the thickness of the base course. Vertical stress distribution and surface deformation were also investigated. The experimental results show that the inclusion of geocell within the base course increases the bearing capacity of pavement. It was observed that for each additional 25 mm height of geocell, the bearing capacity increased by an average of 130 kPa. Due to geocell reinforcement, the average vertical stress decreases by 65% at the center of the EPC (earth pressure cell). Furthermore, ANN models were developed to predict the deformation and vertical stress from experimental data. The R 2 value was obtained as 0.99, which shows the best correlation between measured and predicted values.