Load-Settlement Response of Square Footing Resting on Sand Bed Reinforced with Cement Bag Strip

An attempt was made to investigate the feasibility of cement bags obtained from construction sites to be used as planner reinforcement in sands by conducting laboratory load-settlement tests. The cement bag strip has been placed at different depths in single and multiple layers within a model tank’s sand bed of 65% relative density. The load settlement response of reinforced and unreinforced sand beds was compared after the compression load test. The influence of the number of reinforcement layers and reinforcement depth from footing on the load-settlement behavior has been examined and critically appraised for their practical significance. It has been found that the ultimate bearing capacity of the foundation increases with the increase in the number of reinforcement layers, and the footing settlement is noted to reduce with the presence of the cement bag. Maximum improvement in load-bearing capacity was 3.5 times for four layers of reinforcement and 2.5 times for single-layer reinforcement placed at a depth of 0.5 B.