Numerical Analysis on the Bearing Capacity of Square Footing on Cohesive Soil Reinforced with Geocomposite
摘要
With the increasing population, the demand of land for infrastructure development is also increasing. But to fulfill the demand, land availability with proper soil conditions is a rising concern. So, it is important to make use of the existing land condition and improve its soil condition rather than discarding the land. There are various methods of soil improvement like soil replacement, compaction, adding soil additives, etc., but recently the use of geosynthetics has proven to be better than any other alternative. Geosynthetics has proved to increase the bearing capacity and reduce the settlement of soil. Out of the different types of geosynthetics available, geocomposite is very advantageous and a sustainable reinforcing material to be used in shallow foundations and pavement works. In this paper, the scope of geocomposite in improving the bearing capacity of soil is studied experimentally and is validated in PLAXIS 3D software in different arrangements. 10 sets of load-bearing capacity tests have been performed for a square footing resting on unreinforced clay and on reinforced clay by varying the length and depth of reinforcement for a single layer of geocomposite. The increase in Bearing Capacity of reinforced clay with optimum length and depth of reinforcement was significantly higher than that of the unreinforced clay. The same has been successfully validated in the PLAXIS 3D software, and a few additional looping arrangements have been done to study the looping effects of geocomposite on the Bearing Capacity. It is observed that for the same length and depth of reinforcement, the looping arrangements have given better results than the planar arrangement.