Strength and deformation parameters of compacted soil are known to be related to soil type and moisture. However, little attention has been directed towards understanding the influence of compaction energy on soil type and moisture. This study considers the effect of different compaction energy on certain geotechnical properties of Kaolin and Laterite soil. This paper describes a laboratory study conducted to evaluate the relationship between soil type, soil moisture content with different compaction energy and strength characteristic. Specimens were compacted with impact energy at levels of 596 kg/m³(Standard Proctor) and 2682 kJ/m³ (Modified Proctor) over a wide range of moisture contents to determine dry unit weight, and Unconfined Compression Strength Test (UCS). Result shows that compaction energy is an important factor in determining soil strength that should be considered during the planning phase of any earthwork construction operation.

The use of sustainable materials in geotechnical applications has increased in recent years due to their positive impacts on geo-environmental and future generations. This paper contributes to existing knowledge on geocell reinforcement of soil by proposing a new inexpensive product: cells made from natural materials, Date Palm Leaf fiber coated with Bitumen (DPLB), to improve its durability, as an alternative to commercially available high-density polyethylene (HDPE) geocells. A physical laboratory model was designed to examine the performance of the DPLB cell and HDPE cell reinforced base layer under repeated loading. The study tested different infill materials gravel, sand, and recycled asphalt pavement (RAP) in DPLB cells and HDPLE geocell-reinforced granular layers and compared them to unreinforced layers. The reinforcement's performance was assessed using elastic deformation, permanent deformation, traffic benefit ratio, and rut depth reduction. Results showed that both DPLB cell and geocell reinforced sand decreased the cumulative permanent deformations compared to the unreinforced layer. DPLB reinforcement cells improved the permanent deformation behavior by 30% due to the lateral restriction provided by the DPLB pockets on the infill materials, while the geocell improved it by 7%. The traffic benefit ratio (TBR) of geocell-reinforced RAP is 26% greater than that of the DPLB cell-reinforced RAP section, although both geocell and DPLB cell exhibited similar TBR values in the case of gravel infill materials. The experimental results showed that DPLB cells are a cost-effective and environmentally friendly substitute for commercially available HDPE geocells in soil reinforcement applications. Doi: 10.28991/CEJ-2024-010-10-018 Full Text: PDF

The construction of hydraulic structures, bridges, culverts, canals, stormwater sewers, and road drainage systems relies on rainwater. Calculated capacities and associated design of required structures based on collected data mandate that these structures can operate properly under various weather conditions and discharge the water that they will be exposed to. Hydrological studies observe flood hazards and plan water resource management using rainfall data. Four rain gauge stations near Amman-downtown (Ras Al-Ain area) were selected for statistical analysis. To comprehend normal, deficiency, excess, and seasonal rainfall of the chosen circle headquarters, 32 years of daily rainfall data are used. This analysis predicts rainfall and plans water resource management. Moreover, it helps determine return periods. This approach aids disaster and crisis management planners and decision-makers to analyze water availability and develop strategies for its storage using statistical measures to assess the variability of monthly and yearly rainfall. By analyzing rainwater for 32 years, the results revealed that Weibull method is 99% in agreement with the average rainfall for all selected stations. Expected maximum discharge for different return times (return times range from 5 to 100 years) was used to fit statistical distributions of (2156.1 mm, 2656.4 mm, 3270.9 mm, 3741.2 mm, and 4221.5 mm), which was identical to the average annual maximum precipitation amount based on positioning methods for all stations. As a result, this technique provides the best matching annual precipitation. Findings revealed that rainfall pattern exhibits irregularity and the probability distribution that provided the best match was determined by minimizing the discrepancy between the observed values and the estimated values. Keywords: Floods, Amman, Rainfall patterns, Return periods, Statistical analysis, Hydraulic structures.