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Performance of surface footing on geocell-reinforced soft clay beds

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Abstract

This paper presents the results of laboratory model tests carried out to develop an understanding of the behaviour of geocell-reinforced soft clay foundations under circular loading. Natural silty clay was used in this study. The geocells were prepared using biaxial polymer grid. The performance of the reinforced bed is quantified using non-dimensional factors i.e., Bearing capacity improvement factor (If) and Percentage reduction in footing settlement (PRS). The test results demonstrate that the geocell mattress redistributes the footing load over a wider area thereby improving the performance of the footing. The load carrying capacity of the clay bed is increased by a factor of up to about 4.5 times that of unreinforced bed. From the pressure-settlement responses, it is observed that the geocell-reinforced foundation bed behaves as a much stiffer system compared to the unreinforced case indicating that a substantial reduction in footing settlement can be achieved by providing geocell reinforcement in the soft clay bed. The maximum reduction in footing settlement obtained with the provision of geocell mattress of optimum size placed close to the footing is around 90%. Further improvement in performance is obtained with provision of an additional planar geogrid layer at the base of the geocell mattress.

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Abbreviations

b:

Width of geocell mattress

cu :

Undrained shear strength of clay

D:

Diameter of the footing

d:

Diameter of an equivalent circular area of geocell pocket opening

δ:

Average surface deformation at a distance of 1.5D from the centre of the footing

h:

Height of geocell mattress

If :

Bearing capacity improvement factor for geocell or layer of planar geogrid

φ:

Angle of friction of soil

PRS:

Percentage reduction in footing settlement

qo :

Footing pressure on unreinforced foundation bed

qc :

Footing pressure with geocell or layers of planar geogrid reinforcement

qult :

Ultimate footing pressure on unreinforced foundation bed

s:

Average footing settlement

so :

Settlement of unreinforced clay bed at any footing pressure

sr :

Settlement of reinforced clay bed corresponding to so

u:

Depth to the top of reinforced zone from the base of the footing

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, 560 012, India

    Sitharam G. Thallak

  2. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, 76019, USA

    Sireesh Saride

  3. Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, 781 039, India

    Sujit Kumar Dash

Authors
  1. Sitharam G. Thallak
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  2. Sireesh Saride
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  3. Sujit Kumar Dash
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Correspondence to Sireesh Saride.

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Thallak, S.G., Saride, S. & Dash, S.K. Performance of surface footing on geocell-reinforced soft clay beds. Geotech Geol Eng 25, 509–524 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-007-9125-8

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