The scale effect on bearing capacity of shallow footings supported by unreinforced granular soils has been evaluated extensively. However, the subject has not been addressed for shallow footings on geocell-reinforced granular soils. In this study, load-settlement characteristic of large square footings is investigated by performing large-scale loading tests on unreinforced and geocell-reinforced granular soils. The effects of footing width (B), soil relative density of soil (Dr), and reinforcement depth (u) have been investigated. The test results show that the scale effects exist in geocell-reinforced soils, like unreinforced soils, and the behavior of small-scale models of footings cannot be directly related to the behavior of full-scale footings due to the difference between initial conditions of tests and the initial state of mean stresses in the soil beneath the footings having different dimensions. Large footings create higher mean stresses in the soil, resulting in low soil friction angle and initial conditions of the test approach to the critical state lines. The results of tests indicate that model experiments should be conducted on low-density soil for better prediction of the behavior of full-scale footings, otherwise, the predicted behavior of full-scale footings does not seem conservative.
The estimation of the value and direction of post-liquefaction deformations is one of the most challenging issues in the modelling of liquefaction soil, due to the inherent and induced anisotropy. It is very important in the science of soil-constitutive models to present a simple and comprehensive model for the prediction of fabric anisotropy effects in pre-and post-liquefaction behaviour in granular soil. In the framework of the multilaminate method, 17 planes with predetermined directions are defined, instead of defining all occurrences depending on the direction in three planes perpendicular to each other in a Cartesian coordinate system. As a result, calculation accuracy is increased in the point due to the effectiveness of the behaviours in different directions. In the present study, after modifying an advanced model by removing constants related to the fabric effect and using lower constants, the precision of model performance after the removal of constants was studied and compared with experimental results in different monotonic, cyclic, drained, and undrained loading conditions. After this, the formation of stress and strain in 17 planes was evaluated in terms of pre-and post-liquefaction, with monotonic and cyclic loadings. The study of the curves shows induced anisotropy in different directions of sandy soil and thus proves the capability of the model in this regard.
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