Improvement of bearing capacity of soil by using natural geotextile

Abstract

Abstract An experimental study has been carried out to improve the bearing capacity of soils by using geotextile. In the present study geojute (gunny bags) is used as geotextile, whereas sand is used as soil media. This research presents the results of laboratory load tests on model square footings supported on reinforced sand beds. A total of 32 load tests are conducted to evaluate the effects of single layer reinforcement placed below square model footings. Parameters of testing programme of the research are the depth of reinforcement, the plan area of reinforcement and the footing size. The test results indicated that the maximum gain in ultimate bearing capacity (UBC) of footings on reinforced soil (by using geojute) is found to be increased by a factor of 3.37 as compared to soil without geojute. Also, the optimum size of reinforcement is found to be 3.5B × 3.5B irrespective of the type of reinforcing materials used. The optimum placement position of geotextile is found to be 0.5B from the base of the footing. At low settlement rates, the study on the values of BCR reveals almost the same results with regard to optimum depth and size of reinforcement mentioned above. It is found that with increase in the settlement rate, BCR increases. Also, the improvement in bearing capacity is found to increase with increase in footing size.

Keywords

• Foundation
• Geojute
• Geotextile
• Reinforcement
• Settlement
• Ultimate bearing capacity