Bearing Capacity of Reinforced CNS Soil Bed on Clay Soil with Inclined Reinforcement Considering Kinematics

Abstract

Usually geosynthetic reinforcement in reinforced foundation beds is aligned in horizontal layers, but transversal to the application of gravity stresses to restrain the tensile strains developed in the soil through interfacial bond resistance limited by its tensile strength. Geosynthetic soil structures can accommodate large deformations before failure. Subgrade soil generally exhibits nonlinear behavior at large deformations. Present work analyzes nonlinear response of cohesive non-swelling (CNS) soil bed reinforced with geotextile reinforcement placed inclined from the edge of the footing toward the free end at an inclination varying between 0° and 20° and evaluated normalized bearing capacity values and compared with horizontally placed geotextile reinforcement considering kinematics and nonlinearity of soil bed. The variation of normalized bearing capacity with the angle of shearing resistance of soil, interface friction angle, stiffness of soil bed, relative fill stiffness factor, and transverse displacement is studied in addition to the effect of inclination of reinforcement. Improvement in normalized bearing capacity ratios with inclined reinforcement considering nonlinear soil bed is significant over and above the effect of transverse resistance of horizontal reinforcement.