A RESEARCH ON THE EFFECT OF THE REINFORCEMENT GEOMETRY ON THE SOIL BEARING CAPACITY UNDER THE STRIP FOOTING LOADS

Abstract

Increasing the bearing capacity in the soils could be rational and economical solution for the shallow foundations in the geotechnical design. When the soil is loose and incapable of carrying loads from foundation, soil improvement appears to be essential. For this reason, the usage of geogrids for reinforcement of foundation soils is one of the principal ways in soil improvement, which is used horizontally as the reinforcement to increase the soil strength. In this research, a geotextile layer with wraparound ends is accomplished on the granular soils because of increasing the load capacity. For this purpose, a modified form of the geogrid alongside the installation method was explored. In addition, PLAXIS (2D) finite element analysis software was employed to model and analyze the new design of the reinforcement. The acquired results demonstrated that the new geometrical form could improve the soil to a greater extent and reduced the settlements, compared to the horizontal reinforcement system.