Impact of reinforcement granular soils on the behaviour of strip footing nearby an excavation

ABSTRACT

Ground improvement of the granular soils by the inclusion of geogrid makes it possible to increase the final bearing capacity of these soils. The lack of urban land, usually the construction of new buildings adjacent to the old buildings is used. In the present work, a series of numerical studies using an analysis of finite elements in reinforced and unreinforced granular soils adjacent to excavations loaded with a strip footing were carried out using two granular type soils. The work aimed to define the impact of the geogrid on bearing capacity suggests an optimal number of reinforcements, and investigates the behaviour of two closed footings adjacent to the pit. It was obtained that for granular soils using three layers of reinforcement, the ultimate capacity will be considerably increased. Moreover, final bearing capacity will increment in a non-linear manner by incrementing the distance from the edge of the excavation. As a result, a lot of care should be done to determine the footing location. Finally, the placement of foundations adjacent to each other increases their bearing capacity and efficiency factor. In the ratio of the distances between the surface foundations beyond 5 times foundation width, the effect of interference is negligible.

KEYWORDS:

• Bearing capacity improvement
• reinforced granular soils
• adjacent strip footing
• sheet pile wall
• deflection
• shallow excavation

Acknowledgments

The first author would like to thank the Tishreen University of Syria, which sent him to Iran to obtain a Ph.D. in Geotechnical Engineering. The author would also like to acknowledge the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology in Iran, and Shahid Beheshti University.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.