Influence of geogrid arrangement on the bearing capacity of a granular soil on physical models and its comparison to theoretical equations

Abstract

This study presents an analysis of the influence of geogrid distribution on the bearing capacity of granular soils. For this purpose, the bearing capacity is compared based on 3 arrangements, uniform, trapezoidal, and inverted trapezoidal, with 2 types of geogrids, biaxial and multiaxial, under the application of an axial load. The tests performed were analyzed in three forms in which the trapezoidal distribution was the best arrangement for biaxial and multiaxial geogrids. The first analysis considers the peaks for each stress–strain curve, the trapezoidal distribution increases the bearing capacity by 36% and 33% for biaxial and multiaxial geogrids, respectively. The second analysis considers a settlement ratio (s/B) of 10%, which had an average increment of 30.5% for the two types of geogrids. The third analysis considers a 20% of s/B ratio, which showed a 56% and 81% of bearing capacity ratio (BCR) increase for biaxial and multiaxial geogrids respectively. From an economical and environmental analysis, the trapezoidal distribution saves 7% of material compared to the traditional uniform distribution. The comparison between physical and numerical models with theoretical equations is presented.

Geogrid-Enhanced Modulus and Stress Distribution in Clay Soil

“…The equivalent elastic modulus E s can be estimated using Equation (2), where the modulus of reinforced soil can be derived from the modulus of unreinforced soil by…”

“…The application of geogrid-reinforced soils to support shallow foundations can be dated back to as early as the 1970s. Over the past half-century, significant research efforts have been directed toward exploring the performance of geogrid-reinforced soil foundations (RSFs) across various soil types [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. Varied parameters in these studies include the top layer spacing, number of geogrid layers, vertical spacing between layers, length of geogrid reinforcement, tensile modulus, footing shapes, soil types, etc.…”