Bearing Capacity of Inclined Reinforced Sand Bed on Clay

Abstract

Reinforcement is arranged (placed) usually horizontal underneath the footings, to restrain developed tensile strains in soil, which in turn increases the reinforced sand bed shearing resistance by means of interfacial bond resistance and limited by tensile strength of its own. Present work analyzes geosynthetic reinforced foundation bed with reinforcement placed inclined downward from center toward edges at an inclination varying from 0 to 10° and evaluated the normalized bearing capacity values. Sand bed reinforced with inclined reinforcement overlying clay is studied by computing enhancement in normalized bearing capacity against reinforced foundation bed with reinforcement placed horizontally. The variation of normalized bearing capacity with angle of shearing resistance of sand bed, length of reinforcement, interface angle of shearing resistance, and intensity of surcharge is studied. This paper quantifies the increase in bearing capacity of sand bed reinforced with inclined reinforcement over the conventional method of placing reinforcement horizontally.