Wicking geotextile has been increasingly utilized in field projects to mitigate water-related roadway problems. The previous studies showed that the wicking geotextile could provide mechanical stabilization, serve as capillary barrier, and enhance lateral drainage. The wicking geotextile differentiates itself from non-wicking geotextiles by providing capillary or wicking drainage in unsaturated conditions, whereas non-wicking geotextiles only provide gravitational drainage under saturated or near-saturated conditions. Although the previous studies have demonstrated the benefits of soil water content reduction by the wicking drainage, it is not well understood how the wicking geotextile stabilization improves overall performance of aggregate bases over subgrade under traffic or cyclic loading. This paper presents an experimental study where large-scale cyclic plate loading tests were conducted under different conditions: (1) non-stabilized base, (2) non-wicking geotextile-stabilized base, and (3) wicking geotextile-stabilized base, over soft and moderate subgrades. Rainfall simulation was carried out for each test section. After each rainfall simulation, a drainage period was designed to allow water to drain from the section. The amounts of water applied and exiting from the test section were recorded and are compared. Cyclic loading was applied after each drainage period. The test results show that the combined hydraulic and mechanical stabilization effect by the wicking geotextile reduced the permanent deformation of the aggregate base over the subgrade as compared with the non-stabilized and non-wicking geotextile-stabilized sections.

芯吸土工布越来越多地用于现场项目，以缓解与水有关的道路问题。先前的研究表明，芯吸土工布可以提供机械稳定性，作为毛细屏障，并增强横向排水。芯吸土工布通过在不饱和条件下提供毛细管或芯吸排水而区别于非芯吸土工布，而非芯吸土工布仅在饱和或接近饱和条件下提供重力排水。尽管先前的研究已经证明了通过芯吸排水降低土壤含水量的好处，但尚不清楚芯吸土工布的稳定性如何在交通或循环荷载下提高路基上集料基础的整体性能。本文介绍了一项实验研究，其中在不同条件下进行了大规模循环板加载试验：(1) 非稳定基底，(2) 非芯吸土工布稳定基底，和 (3) 芯吸土工布稳定基底，超过软和中等路基。对每个测试段进行了降雨模拟。在每次降雨模拟之后，设计了一个排水期，让水从该部分排出。记录并比较施加的和从测试部分流出的水量。在每个排水期之后施加循环载荷。