FEM Investigation on the Secondary Reinforcement Effect on Shallow Foundation Seated on Geosynthetic Reinforced Soil

Many numerical studies confirmed the efficiency of adding secondary reinforcement into geosynthetic reinforced soil (GRS) walls, and shallow foundations are generally seated on reinforced and unreinforced embankments and ground. This investigation presents a numerical study of the behavior of GRS with and without secondary reinforcement under static surcharge conditions. This study was conducted using a two-dimensional finite element program to simulate a GRS designated for use as a supporting structure. The numerical model was first compared and verified with the numerical and measured results from a full-scale field test. A parametric study was then conducted to investigate the effect of secondary reinforcement length, stiffness, and layout on the performance of GRS and the behavior of shallow foundations on the top of GRS. The numerical results show that the secondary reinforcement length, stiffness, connection, and their layout contribute to alleviating the slab settlement and the facing deflection, also that the existence of a relation between the primary reinforcement vertical spacing and secondary reinforcement contribution on the slab settlement reduction.