Field study on vibration characteristics of geocell-reinforced aeolian sand subgrades

Constructing highways in deserts is expensive due to the difficulty of acquiring materials; utilizing aeolian sand effectively has become a problem, especially in the Xinjiang region, where the desert widely occurs. This paper aims to investigate the vibration response of a geocell-reinforced aeolian sand subgrade under traffic loading based on field tests of highways in deserts. The vibration acceleration response of geocell-reinforced aeolian sand and gravelly soil upper roadbed structures is tested. The field test results illustrate the effects of dynamic loading on geocell-reinforced aeolian sand roadbeds, and the thickness substitution ratio between geocell-reinforced aeolian sand roadbeds and conventional gravelly soil roadbeds is determined and verified based on the vibration acceleration monitoring values. The results show that the vibration response induced by the test vehicle is concentrated within the 30 Hz frequency band, and the higher the vibration frequency, the faster the vertical decay in the road. The vibration damping capacity of the reinforced aeolian sand roadbed is better than that of the gravelly soil roadbed; when replacing the gravelly soil roadbed with the reinforced aeolian sand roadbed, the substitution ratio is 0.31-0.42. It is verified that half thickness of gravel soil on roadbeds can be replaced by geocell-reinforced aeolian sand under different working conditions. The results of this study can provide reference data for the design of highway subgrades in deserts.