Date of Award

5-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Civil Engineering

Abstract

Expansive clay embankment slopes are highly susceptible to climate-driven wetting-drying cycles that reduce matric suction, weaken shear strength, and increase the risk of surficial failure. While geosynthetics are widely used for mechanical stabilization, their field-scale hydraulic performance under seasonal climatic conditions remains insufficiently understood. This study evaluates the dual hydraulic-mechanical behavior of a geogrid-integrated geotextile geocomposite in expansive clay embankments under natural environmental exposure. Two field-scale embankment slopes (1.83 m × 1.07 m × 1.22 m, 1H:1V) were constructed using high-plasticity clay (CH, PI = 47.7–51.2). One slope was reinforced with three horizontal layers of geogrid-integrated geotextile, while the other served as an unreinforced control. TEROS 11 and TEROS 21 sensors continuously monitored volumetric moisture content and matric suction at depths of 0.5, 1.5, 2.5, and 3.5 ft from June 2025 to February 2026. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, normality tests, empirical cumulative distribution functions (ECDF), kernel density estimation (KDE), rank-based Empirical Copula analysis with Kendall's Tau, and depth-wise Van Genuchten Soil-Water Characteristic Curve (SWCC) modeling. The reinforced slope exhibited greater moisture retention and significantly reduced moisture variability than the control. During summer, mean volumetric moisture content (m3/m3) increased from 0.285 to 0.332 at 1.5 ft, from 0.241 to 0.279 at 2.5 ft, and from 0.398 to 0.438 at 3.5 ft, while the coefficient of variation decreased by up to 58%. Winter observations showed similar improvements, with moisture increasing from 0.256 to 0.309 at 1.5 ft and from 0.354 to 0.383 at 3.5 ft. ECDF and KDE analyses confirmed narrower moisture distributions, Copula analysis demonstrated weakened vertical coupling during the high-rainfall season, and SWCC modeling revealed enhanced suction-moisture behavior at intermediate depths. These findings demonstrate that geogrid-integrated geotextile geocomposites improve both hydraulic regulation and mechanical performance in expansive clay embankments, providing a reliable strategy for enhancing slope resilience under seasonal climatic variability.

Index Terms—Climate-resilient infrastructure, expansive soils, geocomposite-reinforced slopes, geogrid-embedded geotextile, hydro-geotechnical stability, probabilistic analysis, soil moisture dynamics, unsaturated soil mechanics.

Committee Chair/Advisor

Md Jobair Bin Alam

Committee Member

Judy A. Perkins

Committee Member

Raghava R. Kommalapati

Publisher

Prairie View A&M University

Rights

© 2021 Prairie View A & M University

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Date of Digitization

7/31/2026

Contributing Institution

John B Coleman Library

City of Publication

Prairie View

MIME Type

Application/PDF

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