Experimental Testing and Analytical Modeling of Strip Footing in Reinforced Sandy Soil with Multi-Geogrid Layers Under Different Loading Conditions

Abstract

In this study, large-scale physical models with dimensions of (0.9m * 0.9m * 0.55m) have been designed and constructed to investigate the behavior of strip footing in reinforced sandy soil with multi-geogrid layers under inclined and eccentric loading conditions. The effect of several parameters such as geogrid layers (N), soil relative density (RD), depth of the topmost geogrid layer (U/B), load inclination angle (α) and load eccentricity ratio (e/B) on the bearing capacity ratio (BCR) of reinforced soil have been investigated through 120 experimental tests. As the number of the geogrid layers increased from 0 to 4, the BCR increased by 255% for 15 o load inclination angle and by 470% for 0.05 load eccentricity ratio in 60% RD. When the RD of the soil increased from 60% to 80%, the average decreases in horizontal displacement and footing tilting angle were about 35% and 21% respectively. Hyperbolic analytical model was used to predict the relationships of most of the studied parameters. However, p-q analytical model was suggested to model the relationship between the BCR versus U/B. Both suggested models (hyperbolic and p-q) were in a very good agreement with the experimental results.

A Study on the Utilization of Clayey Soil as Embankment Material through Model Bearing Capacity Tests

“…It is expected that the soil should have a higher bearing capacity when reinforcements are added and proper soil conditioning is applied [6][7][8]. Geosynthetics are popular reinforcements that are widely used to improve the load-bearing capacity of soil [6,[9][10][11]. Granular materials, such as gravel and sand, are also used with clayey soils to hasten the consolidation process and increase the soil-bearing capacity.…”

“…The vertical displacement or penetration of the loading plate and piston will be designated, in the following context of this paper, as Settlement, S, and the Settlement Ratio (SR) is computed as S/B. The Bearing Capacity Ratio (BCR) [10,11,15,21] is computed as…”