A Numerical Study on Bearing Capacity of Ring and Circular Foundations on Granular Soils Reinforced by Grid-Anchor System

Soil reinforcement is one of the soil improvement techniques. Over the last four decades, a large number of researches have been carried out in order to obtain the reinforcement type and the bearing capacity improvement of the reinforced soil. A new reinforcement type called Grid-Anchor (G-A) has been recently invented which is made of geogrids by adding polymer anchors to it. In this study the bearing capacity of ring and circular footings located on granular soils reinforced with the G-A is investigated using numerical analyses. Commercial finite-element software PLAXIS is employed to perform the simulations. 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, for each foundation were investigated. The effect of reinforcement stiffness for two types of footing has been investigated. A comparison between the results obtained for the G-A and geogrid reinforcement systems and unreinforced soils is demonstrated as well. Abstract: Soil reinforcement is one of the soil improvement techniques. Over the last four decades, a large number of researches have been carried out in order to obtain the reinforcement type and the bearing capacity improvement of the reinforced soil. A new reinforcement type called Grid-Anchor (G-A) has been recently invented which is made of geogrids by adding polymer anchors to it. In this study the bearing capacity of ring and circular footings located on granular soils reinforced with the G-A is investigated using numerical analyses. Commercial finite-element software PLAXIS is employed to perform the simulations. 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, for each foundation were investigated. The effect of reinforcement stiffness for two types of footing has been investigated. A comparison between the results obtained for the G-A and geogrid reinforcement systems and unreinforced soils is demonstrated as well. Abstract: Soil reinforcement is one of the soil improvement techniques. Over the last four decades, a large number of researches have been carried out in order to obtain the reinforcement type and the bearing capacity improvement of the reinforced soil. A new reinforcement type called Grid-Anchor (G-A) has been recently invented which is made of geogrids by adding polymer anchors to it. In this study the bearing capacity of ring and circular footings located on granular soils reinforced with the G-A is investigated using numerical analyses. Commercial finite-element software PLAXIS is employed to perform the simulations. 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, for each foundation were investigated. The effect of reinforcement stiffness for two types of footing has been investigated. A comparison between the results obtained for the G-A and geogrid reinforcement systems and unreinforced soils is demonstrated as well.