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Experimental Study of Bearing Capacity of Granular Soils, Reinforced with Innovative Grid-Anchor System

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Abstract

The pull-out resistance of reinforcing elements is one of the most significant factors in increasing the bearing capacity of geosynthetic reinforced soils. In this research a new reinforcing element that includes elements (anchors) attached to ordinary geogrid for increasing the pull-out resistance of reinforcements is introduced. Reinforcement therefore consists of geogrid and anchors with cubic elements that attached to the geogrid, named (by the authors) Grid-Anchor. A total of 45 load tests were performed to investigate the bearing capacity of square footing on sand reinforced with this system. The effect of depth of the first reinforcement layer, the vertical spacing, the number and width of reinforcement layers, the distance that anchors are effective, effect of relative density, low strain stiffness and stiffness after local shear were investigated. Laboratory tests showed that when a single layer of reinforcement is used there is an optimum reinforcement embedment depth for which the bearing capacity is the greatest. There also appeared to be an optimum vertical spacing of reinforcing layers for multi-layer reinforced sand. The bearing capacity was also found to increase with increasing number of reinforcement layer, if the reinforcement were placed within a range of effective depth. The effect of soil density also is investigated. Finally the results were compared with the bearing capacity of footings on non-reinforced sand and sand reinforced with ordinary geogrid and the advantages of the Grid-Anchor were highlighted. Test results indicated that the use of Grid-Anchor to reinforce the sand increased the ultimate bearing capacity of shallow square footing by a factor of 3.0 and 1.8 times compared to that for un-reinforced soil and soil reinforced with ordinary geogrid, respectively.

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Abbreviations

G-A:

Grid-Anchor system of reinforcing

B:

Footing width

b:

Reinforcement width

u:

Depth of first layer of reinforcement below footing base

c:

Anchorage width

d:

Total reinforced depth

α:

Angle of anchors with horizontal

N:

Number of reinforcement layers

Dr :

Relative density

q u :

Ultimate bearing capacity of un-reinforced soil

q u(R) :

Ultimate bearing capacity of reinforced soil

UBC:

Ultimate bearing capacity

q u(BP) :

Ultimate bearing capacity from break point method

q u(T) :

Ultimate bearing capacity from tangent method

BCR:

Bearing capacity ratio

BCRGA :

Bearing capacity of G-A compared with geogrid

S:

Settlement of footing

SIF:

Stiffness improvement factor

EA:

Axial stiffness of reinforcement

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

    Mansour Mosallanezhad, Nader Hataf & Arsalan Ghahramani

Authors
  1. Mansour Mosallanezhad
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  2. Nader Hataf
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  3. Arsalan Ghahramani
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Correspondence to Nader Hataf.

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Mosallanezhad, M., Hataf, N. & Ghahramani, A. Experimental Study of Bearing Capacity of Granular Soils, Reinforced with Innovative Grid-Anchor System. Geotech Geol Eng 26, 299–312 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-007-9166-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-007-9166-z

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