What Are Geocells?
Geocells are three dimensional honeycombs of polymeric strips filled with granular material (sand, recycled asphalt, local soils). This cellular confinement system prevents movement of infill and distributes loads over a wide area – which increases the strength and stiffness of a pavement layer. This makes geocells an ideal solution for all types of soil stabilization and ground reinforcement:
- Load Support – reduce construction and maintenance costs of roads, rails, ports, airports.
- Slope and Channel Protection – improve erosion control and drainage systems.
- Earth Retention Walls – build gravity and reinforced walls faster, with high seismic resistance.
- Landfills and Reservoirs – improve geomembrane protection.
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4 Key Factors for Choosing the Right Geocell for Your Project
1. Geocell Soil Confinement Must Be Retained for the Entire Design-Life
Every polymeric material will elongate (creep) when loaded over time. When a geocell polymeric strip elongates by 3%, its geometry changes, the infill soil loses its confinement and the integrity of the entire structure is at risk. The question is how can we assure that the soil confinement structure is retained?
Based on proven engineering methodologies validated by over 100 academic papers, PRS is the only company with a Tough-Cell guaranteed to retain its performance for the entire project design life.
How can we guarantee long term performance? Based on your project design requirements, the PRS geotechnical engineering team will optimize the cell with the relevant engineering properties to your design.
PRS guarantees the geocell performance for the entire project design life
How PRS Geotechnical Engineering Guarantees Long Term Performance
2. Two Types of Geocells – Choose the Right One
Although geometry of geocells is similar – it’s the polymeric material which determine their performance. There are 2 main types of geocells:
- Soft Cells – Short Term: these early generation geocells are made from HDPE (High-Density Polyethylene). These offer flexibility, and are best suited to less demanding landscape, light load and short-term applications.
- Tough Cells® – Long Term: these rigid geocells are made from nano-polymeric alloys (NPA), such as Neoloy®. Designed for long term use, Tough Cells are very stiff, strong and creep resistant, and suitable for roads, railways, ports and airports, with a 75+ year guarantee.
3. Three Key Properties Determine Geocell Confinement Ability
- Dynamic Mechanical Modulus (Elastic Stiffness) – the elastic behavior of the Geocell and its capability to store and release dynamic loading, while maintaining its geometry (ASTM E2254 DMA test).
- Permanent Deformation (Creep) – defines the plastic behavior at the end of project design life under specific designed loading (ASTM D6992 SIM test).
- Tensile Strength – defines the strength to withstand vertical load transferred to hoop (cell wall and weld) tensile forces (ISO-10319 Tensile test, wide-width inkling perforations).
Why these Key Properties are Critical for the Success of Your Project
4. Four Neoloy Tough-Cells Categories to Optimize Cost and Performance
One size doesn’t fit all. Neither does one geocell fit all projects. PRS-Neoloy Tough-Cells are manufactured in 4 strength categories (A-D) to match the geocell to the specific project requirements. This enables you to customize the geocell configuration to the project and optimize the solution performance vs. cost. Learn how use Neoloy Tough-Cells Categories to optimize your performance and costs.
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1. Neoloy Tough-Cells Research
Whether your challenge is to build a railway over expansive clay or improve walls seismic resistance – there’s a good chance we have an academic research made by leading industry experts, which covers your need. Check Out Neoloy Tough-Cells Published Academic Articles
2. Compare Neoloy Tough-CellsPerformance with Other Solutions
Interested to know how Neoloy Tough-Cellscan improve your current structure performance while saving costs? Check Out a few interesting comparisons of Neoloy Tough-Cells vs. Soft-Cells Solutions
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