Geotec Hanoi 2011- ISBN 978 - 604 - 82 - 000 - 8

Geocell Mattress for Heavy Duty Working Platform over Soft Soil
Richard Ong
Tensar International Ltd, Malaysia Regional Office, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. E-mail: richard@tensar.com.my.

Wee Kiat Song

Tensar International Ltd, Malaysia Regional Office, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. E-mail: songwk@tensar.com.my.

Tran Ngoc Minh

PTSC M&C Co. Limited, Vung Tau, Vietnam. E-mail: minhtran@ptsc.com.vn.

Pham Xuan Thinh

PTSC M&C Co. Limited, Vung Tau, Vietnam. E-mail: thinhxpham@ptsc.com.vn.
Keywords: geocell mattress, geogrid, reinforcement, mechanically stabilised layer, soft soil.
ABSTRACT: Building embankments over soft soil has always been a challenge for geotechnical

engineers. This paper presents the use of geocell mattress with mechanically stabilised layer (MSL) for
the construction of a heavy duty working platform over soft soil in Vung Tau, Vietnam with loading up to
50 t/m. In this project, the geocell mattress with thickness of 1 m was constructed using stiff geogrids to
form honeycombed structure and filled with aggregate. Subsequently, the MSL with thickness of 2 m was
constructed on top of the geocell mattress to form a stiff and stable working platform by maximising the
pressure distribution of applied loading onto the soft foundation soils effectively. This paper discusses the
design and construction of the geocell mattress with MSL and presents result from a large scale plate
bearing test conducted to verify the performance of the foundation system constructed. The result from
the plate bearing test showed minimal settlement when the maximum load applied was 60 t/m. This
indicates the geocell mattress with MSL had been constructed successfully to meet its design
requirements.
1.

INTRODUCTION

In many parts of the world where soft soils are

abundant, building embankments over these soft
foundation soils has always been a challenge for
geotechnical engineers. Some of the common solutions
to this construction problem are piles-raft foundation
system, removal and replacement of the soft soils,
adopting staged construction and using ground
improvement technology like stone columns or soilcement columns, etc. These solutions may not always
be practical or economic. Therefore, the use of a geocell
mattress provides an alternative solution. It allows for
mobilisation of the maximum bearing capacity from the
soft foundation soil and forms a stiff and stable working
platform which supports the movement of construction
plants and accelerates the embankment construction
(Jenner et al., 1988).
In this project, where a working platform is to be
built to support the movement of heavy cranes, the
geocell mattress was constructed to increase the bearing
capacity of the foundation soil. This is further enhanced
with the construction of mechanically stabilised layer

(MSL) on top of the goecell mattress to assist the

distribution of pressures from crane tracks to the
geocell mattress and subsequently to the foundation
soil.
1.1 Geocell Mattress
Geocell mattress is a series of interlocking cells
formed using stiff polymer geogrid reinforcement to
contain and confine granular material providing stiff
and rough foundation to an embankment that maximises
the bearing capacity of the soft soil beneath it (Bush et
al., 1989). In British Standard BS8006-1, this is referred
to as basal mattress where a three dimensional
honeycombed structure is formed via a series of
interlocking cells (BSI, 2010). Figure 1 shows a
fabricated geocell mattress being infill with aggregate.
It is worthy to note that unlike the conventional
constructions with high strength reinforcement
geotextiles which required provision of anchorage
length, the geocell mattress is self-contained and
normally does not need external anchorage beyond the
embankment base.
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Geotec Hanoi 2011- ISBN 978 - 604 - 82 - 000 - 8

Figure 1 Geocell mattress infill with aggregate

1.2 Mechanically Stabilised Layer (MSL)
Geogrids have been available since 1980s for ground
stabilisation application where Giroud et al. (1984)
have elaborated on how geogrids can provide benefits
for reinforcement of granular pavement layer. By
incorporating a geogrid or geogrids in an aggregate
layer, a composite material is created and this is often
described as mechanically stabilised layer (MSL).
Discussion on the concept and mechanism of MSL can
be found in Rakowski and Kawalec (2009). The
interlocking mechanism as shown in Figure 2 which
constraint the movement of aggregate particles within
the geogrid apertures is identified as the efficient
reinforcement mechanism that can be mobilised from a
stiff geogrid. Through this mechanism, the aggregate
layer can be stabilised without excessive deformation of
the surface (Jenner, 2007).

Figure 2 Interlocking mechanism of geogrid

1.3 Background of Project
The geocell mattress with MSL discussed in this
paper was adopted for the construction of the working
platform for an offshore facilities fabrication yard in
Vung Tau, Vietnam. The working platform was
required to take loading from heavy crawler crane
tracks up to 50 t/m. The initial design was utilising
conventional reinforced concrete pile-raft foundation
system to build the working platform. However, in
order to accelerate the construction works, the main
contractor was innovative to find alternative solutions
that will reduce the construction time. Geocell mattress

with MSL was selected not only because it will help to

reduce the construction time but it will also provide
substantial cost saving to the project. Technically, the
geocell mattress were proposed basing on the following
reasons: (a) It maximised distribution of applied load
onto the soft foundation; (b) It formed a stiff and stable
working platform enabling all construction plants to
travel on it immediately once constructed; (c) Faster
construction as compare to reinforced concrete pile-raft
foundation construction.
This paper highlights the design and construction of
the geocell mattress with MSL and demonstrates the
successful implementation of the foundation system
through a big scale plate bearing test conducted as
acceptance test.
2.

GEOCELL MATTRESS DESIGN

2.1 Design Concept

The application of a geocell mattress under the base
of an embankment over a soft soil will create an
embankment foundation with the following features
(Jenner et al., 1988):
(a) A perfectly rough interface between the mattress
and the soft foundation soil due to the partial
penetration of the granular fill through the base geogrid
material. A unique multi-directional geogrid with
triangular shaped apertures called TriAx was adopted as
the base for the geocell mattress in this project.
(b) A stiff platform to ensure both an even
distribution of load onto the foundation and the
formation of a regular stress field within the soft
foundation soil. The stiff platform is created by the high
tensile strength of the uniaxial geogrid material used in
the geocell mattress construction to confine the granular
infill.
The above characteristics have the effect of rotating
the principle stresses and hence potential slip planes
through the geocell mattress depth so that the potential
slip plane is near vertical at the interface between the
geocell mattress and the soft foundation soil. Any
potential slip circles are thus driven deep into the
foundation soil and the plasticity bearing condition
becomes a more critical mode for design rather than a
slip circle. Therefore, an enhanced bearing capacity can
be developed with a full base friction situation (i.e.,
perfectly rough base) being the ultimate achieved value.
The stress condition at the interface between the
geocell mattress and the soft soil is then examined to
ensure that the confining stress available from the stiff
geogrids acting on the granular fill is greater than the
required to mobilise the full shear strength of the
underlying soft soil. The method of evaluating the
horizontal stress at the interface is carried out using the
Mohr circle construction considering the friction angle
of the granular fill and the limiting shear stress (i.e., the
undrained shear strength) of the soft soil layer.
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2.2 Design Detail

This geocell mattress with MSL was designed to
form a working platform to support the movement of
crawler cranes with 2 m wide and 13.7 m long crane
tracks separated by a clear distance of 7.6 m. The
maximum load to be supported on each track area is up
to 50 t/m. The foundation soil is 10 m thick soft bluish
clay with an average undrained shear strength of 23 kPa
from vane shear test results. Based on the undrained
shear strength, the ultimate bearing capacity is
calculated to be 131 kPa. Therefore, it is necessary to
ensure that the bearing pressure applied to the surface
of the soft foundation soil is compatible with the
ultimate bearing capacity of 131 kPa.
Due to the low bearing capacity of the foundation
soil and high loading from the cranes, it was decided to
excavate and build the geocell mattress with MSL
foundation system at 3 m below the existing ground
level. Figure 3 shows the schematic diagram of the
proposed foundation system where the MSL thickness
is 2 m and the geocell is 1 m thick. The aggregate to be
used as backfill material for the MSL and geocell
mattress was specified as well graded granular material
with particle size less than 75 mm. In the calculations,
the angle of load spread for the fill material reinforced
with TriAx geogrid within the MSL is taken to be 1
vertical to 1 horizontal (i.e., 1V:1H) whereby the load
distribution through the geocell mattress was taken as 1
vertical to 2 horizontal (i.e., 1V:2H) to model the very
stiff nature of the construction as shown in Figure 4.
MAX. CRANE TRACK
LOADING = 50 t/m
EGL
MECHANICALLY
STABILISED LAYER
(MSL)

2.0 m

GEOCELL MATTRESS

1.0 m

SOFT CLAY

give an adequate factor of safety against bearing failure.

Based on the above load distribution, the loading from
crane tracks at the underside of the geocell mattress is
calculated to be 64.5 kPa. Therefore, the factor of safety
against bearing failure is about 2.0, which is acceptable
by the engineers.
Subsequently, the geogrid requirement in the geocell
mattress is calculated using the vertical stress, geocell
mattress infill soil properties and the foundation
cohesion as input parameters according to the following
equation (Jenner et al., 1988).
{2 n sin ' [4 n sin4 ' 4(sin ' 1)
( n sin ' )]0.5} / 2(sin ' 1)

(1)

where = sum of horizontal chord lengths; n = vertical

stress on foundation soil; ' = effective friction angle of
the geocell infill material;
= shear stress at the
interface of geocell mattress and foundation soil (taken
as undrained shear strength in the limiting condition)
The granular fill for geocell mattress in this project
is determined to have effective friction angle of 35, the
vertical stress is 64.5 kPa and the foundation soil is
having undrained shear strength of 23 kPa. Using these
input parameters, it was calculated that the geocell
mattress requires lateral tensile strength of 33 kN/m.
Based on this requirement, as suitable uniaxial geogrid
was proposed to be used as the diaphragms of the
geocell mattress with TriAx geogrid being adopted as
the base.
3.

GEOCELL MATTRESS CONSTRUCTION

The geocell mattress with MSL foundation system is

constructed in two easy steps. The construction process
is relatively straight forward and does not require
special machineries or skilled personnel. The first step
is to erect the honeycombed geocell structure. This is
formed by fabricating a series of interlocking cells
using 1 m wide, uniaxial stiff geogrids in a vertical
orientation, which is connected to a TriAx base geogrid
as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 3 Geocell mattress with MSL foundation

TRIAX GEOGRID
TO FORM MSL

MAX. CRANE TRACK

LOADING = 50 t/m
EGL

1V:1H
2.0 m
1V:2H
GEOCELL MATTRESS

1.0 m

SOFT CLAY (bearing capacity = 131 kPa)

Figure 4 Load distribution through geocell mattress

with MSL foundation
The basis of the design is that the load from crane
tracks can be distributed to such an extent that the
pressure applied at the base of the geocell mattress will

Figure 5 Fabrication of geocell mattress

Figure 6 shows the geocell mattress fabricated at the
project site and its schematic plan view is shown in
Figure 7. The connection detail between the diagonal
diaphragm and transverse diaphragm is shown in Figure
8. This nodal connection coupling is formed by folding
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Geotec Hanoi 2011- ISBN 978 - 604 - 82 - 000 - 8

a set of ribs of a diagonal diaphragm and pushing them

through apertures in the transverse diaphragm to form a
loop. A nodal connector is then pushed into and down
through the loops.

the trailing row is fully filled. Filling may be carried out

by mechanical plant operating directly on top of filled
cells. It is a normal practice for the fill material to be
placed within the geocell mattress without applying
direct compaction. However, a protective cover of at
least 150 mm thickness of compacted fill should be
placed over the geocell mattress before trafficking.

Geocell
honeycomb
structure
TriAx
base

Figure 6 Geocell mattress fabricated at project site

Figure 9 Geocell mattress sequence of filling

Figure 7 Plan view of geocell mattress

Figure 8 Connection detail of geocell mattress

The second step is simply filling up the 1 m thick
geocell mattress with granular material. The fill
material can be natural gravel, natural sand, crushed
gravel, crushed rock other than argillaceous rock,
crushed concrete, chalk or well burnt colliery spoil. In
this project, a well graded aggregate with diameter less
than 75 mm was adopted. Sequence to follow for the
filling of the geocell mattress is shown in Figure 9. The
process starts by filling the first two rows of cells to
half height. Subsequently, the first row is filled to full
height and the filling process is then continue while
ensuring that a leading row is always half filled before

For this project, after construction of geocell

mattress, the mechanically stabilised layer (MSL) was
constructed on top of the geocell mattress. The MSL
was constructed using the same aggregate used for
geocell mattress infill. The first layer of TriAx geogrid
was laid at 20 cm on top of the geocell mattress.
Subsequently, the TriAx geogrid was laid at 40 cm
interval and the upper most layer of geogrids was
placed at 20 cm below the formation level. The
compaction of the aggregate was carried out in
accordance with conventional earthwork compaction
specifications.
4.

GEOCELL MATTRESS PERFORMANCE

In this project, the primary aim of the foundation

treatment is to ensure the total settlement does not
exceed 100 mm under the crane tracks loading of 50
t/m. This is to ensure the movement of cranes on top of
the constructed working platform will not be impeded.
Therefore, a plate bearing test (PBT) was conducted to
ascertain the performance of the geocell mattress in
meeting the acceptance criterion (i.e., total settlement
less than 100 mm under loading of 50 t/m). Result
from the PBT can be used to confirm the design
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assumptions and verify the performance of the

foundation system constructed with geocell mattress
and MSL.
In this project, the PBT result is more relevant
because a large scale PBT was conducted using
specially fabricated steel plate with dimension of 10 m
long and 1.5 m wide. Six jacks were used with six dial
gauges to exert pressures up to 60 t/m from the
counterweight of 1,100 tonnes constructed by stacking
concrete blocks on a steel platform. The PBT
arrangement for this project is shown Figure 10.
REACTION BEAM

STEEL PLATE
10.00 m

1.20 m

3.80 m

3.80 m

1.20 m

1.50 m
DIAL GAUGE
1.71 m

1.97 m

1.77 m

1.77 m

JACK

1.71 m

0.54 m

0.54 m

Figure 10 Plate bearing test arrangement

The loading on the steel plate was increase in six
steps: 10 t/m, 20 t/m, 30 t/m, 40 t/m, 50 t/m and
60 t/m. During each step load application, the
settlement of the plate was observed using dial gauges
and the graph of settlement versus applied load can be
plotted as shown in Figure 11. In addition, the graph of
settlement versus time with incremental loading applied
to the steel plate is also plotted as shown in Figure 12.
0

Settlement (mm)

-10

-20

-30

-40

-50
0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Applied load (t/m)

Figure 11 Settlement versus applied load

0
20 t/m
30 t/m

Settlement (mm)

-10

40 t/m

-20

50 t/m

Based on these two graphs, the engineers were satisfied

that the geocell mattress with MSL foundation system
will be able to perform according to the design
requirement, which is to provide adequate bearing
capacity to support loading up to 50 t/m within the
allowable settlement of 100 mm.
5.

CONCLUSION

A geocell mattress with mechanically stabilised layer

(MSL) foundation system was proposed as an
alternative to the conventional reinforced concrete pileraft foundation system in the construction of a working
platform to support heavy crawler cranes movement
with loading of up to 50 t/m. The 1 m thick geocell
mattress with 2 m thick MSL on top of it was
constructed successfully to meet the performance
criterion as indicated from the plate bearing test results.
This innovative geotechnical solution has helped the
main contractor to reduce the working platform
construction time and also provided them with
significant cost savings.
4.

REFERENCES

BSI (2010). BS8006-1:2010, Code of practice for

strengthened/reinforced soils and other fills. British
Standard Institution.
Bush, D.I., Jenner, C.J. & Bassett, R.H. (1989). The
design and construction of geocell foundation
mattresses supporting embankments over soft
ground. Geotextiles and Geomembranes, Elsevier,
Vol. 9, No.1, pp 8398.
Giroud, J.P., Ah-Line, C., & Bonaparte, R. (1984).
Design of unpaved roads and trafficked areas with
geogrids. Proc. of the Symp. on Polymer Grid
Reinforcement in Civil Engineering, London, U.K.,
pp. 116-127.
Jenner, C.G. (2007). The reinforcement of the granular
layers of roads and railways. Railway Engineering
Conf., June, London, U.K.
Jenner, C.G., Bassett, R.H. & Bush, D.I. (1988). The
use of slip line fields to assess improvement in
bearing capacity of soft ground by a cellular
foundation mattress installed at the base of an
embankment. Proc. Int. Geotech. Symp. on Theory
and Practice of Earth Reinforcement, October,
Fukuoka, Japan, pp 209214.
Rakowski, Z. & Kawalec, J. (2009). Mechanically
stabilized layers in road construction. Proc. 27th Int.
Baltic Road Conf., August, Riga, Latvia.

-30
60 t/m
-40

-50
0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

Time (minute)

Figure 12 Settlement versus time

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