Doctoral Dissertations

Chuang Lin

Keywords and Phrases

Engineering Application; Geosynthetics; Material Characterization; Numerical Simulation; Pavement Design; Unsaturated Soil

Abstract

“Excess water within a pavement structure is the major cause of pavement deteriorations. A roadway is often constructed with soils compacted at the optimum water contents to achieve the best performance. After construction, the soil water content variation is controlled by the ambient environment. The base course aggregate is very sensitive to water content variations. Unfortunately, conventional drainage system can only drain gravity water, but not capillary water, and it cannot work under unsaturated conditions. Consequently, no matter how well the road is constructed, the water content is expected to increase with time and the excess water will inevitably accelerate pavement deteriorations under repetitive traffic load. This study aims at solving the excess water induced problems using a new wicking geotextile. Firstly, a series of laboratory test results were performed to characterize the mechanical and hydraulic properties of the wicking geotextile, the soil, and their interactions. After that, the laboratory test results were used as numerical simulation inputs to evaluate the performance of the wicking geotextile under different working and climatic conditions. The benefits of the wicking geotextile were quantified and incorporated into the existing pavement design methods. Then, the field performance of the wicking geotextile was continuously monitored and potential issues that might influence the long-term performance of the wicking geotextile are evaluated. Eventually, a new-bio-wicking system is proposed to further improve the drainage efficiency of the wicking geotextile. The results from laboratory tests, numerical simulations, and field observations validated the efficiency of the wicking geotextile to dehydrate road embankments”--Abstract, page iv.

Advisor(s)

Zhang, Xiong

Committee Member(s)

Olgun, C. Guney
Liu, Jenny
Han, Jie
Deng, Wen

Department(s)

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering

Degree Name

Ph. D. in Civil Engineering

Comments

This research was supported by the China Scholarship Council, China (No.201706370160), the Central South University, China (No.2016zzts080), the China Railway Corporation, China (No. 2015G006-F), the Hunan Science & Technology department, China (No. 2017SK2212), and the Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51678572).
This study was partially sponsored by the GSI (Geosynthetic Institute) Fellowship.
The research presented in this paper was sponsored by TENCATE GEOSYNTHETICS (North America). The authors gratefully acknowledge them for their financial support.
This study was funded by the Center for Environmentally Sustainable Transportation in Cold Climates (CESTiCC) and TenCate Geosynthetics Americas. The authors gratefully acknowledge for their financial supports.

Publisher

Missouri University of Science and Technology

Publication Date

Spring 2019

Journal article titles appearing in thesis/dissertation

  • Characterizations of water retention curves for several types of woven geotextiles
  • Comprehensive material characterizations of pavement structure installed with wicking fabrics
  • Laboratory evaluation of different geosynthetics for water drainage
  • Numerical simulation of seasonal variations of base course resilient modulus in pavement structures
  • Working mechanism of a new wicking geotextile in roadway applications: A numerical study
  • Laboratory drainage performance of a new geotextile with wicking fabric
  • Long-term performance of wicking fabric in Alaskan pavements
  • A bio-wicking system to dehydrate road embankment

Pagination

xx, 409 pages

Note about bibliography

Includes bibliographic references.

Rights

© 2019 Chuang Lin, All rights reserved.

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

File Type

text

Language

English

Thesis Number

T 12032

Electronic OCLC #

1313117355

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