Experimental and numerical investigation of the bearing capacity of model circular and ring footings on reinforced sand

Abstract

A study was performed to investigate the bearing capacity of circular and ring footings on reinforced sand by conducting laboratory model tests along with numerical analysis. The effects of the depth of the first layer of reinforcement, vertical spacing and number of reinforcement layers on bearing capacity of the footings were investigated. Both the experimental and numerical studies indicated that, when a single layer of reinforcement is used there is an optimum reinforcement embedment depth for which the bearing capacity is 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 layers, if the reinforcements were placed within a range of effective depths. In addition, the analysis indicated that increasing reinforcement stiffness beyond a threshold value does not result in a further increase in the bearing capacity.