The Bearing Capacity of Reinforced Soils using Geogrids under horizontal cyclic loadings

It is widely known that the bearing capacity of a shallow foundation is reduced when the foundation is subjected to rocking moment and horizontal loads during an earthquake event. This paper discusses a series of numerical solution carried out in FLAC that calibrate with results of experimental testing on small scale reinforced foundation in order to measure the bearing capacity of a reinforced shallow foundation due to horizontal cyclic loading. In this study, the horizontal bearing capacity ratio (HBCR) was compared with vertical bearing capacity ratio (BCR) and the effect of such parameters as number of cycles and loading magnitude on the dynamic bearing capacity of reinforced soil was discussed.