School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Ph.D. Thesis Defense Announcement
EXPERIMENTAL AND COMPUTATIONAL EVALUATIONS OF BIO-INSPIRED GEOGRIDS REINFORCED FLEXIBLE PAVEMENT SYSTEMS
By Jiaojun Liu
Advisor:
Dr. J. David Frost (CEE) & Dr. Nimisha Roy (SCI)
Committee Members:
Dr. Susan E. Burns (CEE)
Dr. Chloé Arson (CEE/Cornell)
Dr. Michael E. Helms (ME)
Dr. Rodrigo Borela Valente (SCI)
Date and Time: November 7, 2024. 1:00 pm EST
Location: SEB 122 Microsoft Teams: ID: 278 548 461 328; Passcode: WoyHbC
Complete announcement, with abstract, is attached.
The use of geogrids, man-made polymer grid structures, to mitigate road rutting, or permanent deformation, has significantly increased over the last decade. However, with increasing traffic loads, commercially available biaxial and triaxial geogrids do not always provide optimal solutions. There is a pressing need for the next generation of geogrids that are more cost-effective and outperform current options. Despite this need, most studies still focus on traditional, readily available designs. This study aims to address that gap by scientifically designing and evaluating novel geogrid geometries, drawing inspiration from the delicately evolved design of 2D orb-weaving spider webs using the Bio-Inspired Design (BID) method.
In this research, bio-inspired geogrids were developed, and some designs were prototyped using 3D printing. Their performance was tested in the lab, and bench-scale road rutting was digitized through 3D scanning. While bench-scale tests enable rapid performance comparisons, the results are often not directly applicable to real roads due to scale and material differences. Therefore, this research also updates widely adopted Mechanistic-Empirical (ME) pavement models to better incorporate geogrids into real-world road design. This research demonstrates that novel technologies such as 3D printing allow for the production of lab-scale geogrid samples with new geometries, successfully expanding the research scope beyond traditional manufacturing methods. It also contributes to the design of the next generation of geogrids