In present investigation attempt has been made to study the bearing capacity and settlement
characteristics of footings subjected to central vertical load and resting on layered soil with
the help of model tests and with the application of finite e
lement method (FEM) to
calculate bearing capacity of a strip footing on one-layer and two-layer soil (Sand and
Clay). To investigate the effect of various parameters on soil bearing Capacity a
commercial finite element software, PLAXIS, has been used. Soil profile contains two soil
types including sand and clay. Soil behavior is represented by the elasto-plastic Mohrcoulomb
(MC) -model. For a one-layer case, the bearing capacity also is calculated which
has a good agreement with theoretical equations. For a layered soil, soft-over strong soil,
parametric study was carried out. It is concluded that the bearing capacity of footing
decreases as the height of clayey soil increases whilst the displacement under footing
increases. There is a critical depth where the stronger bottom layer does not affect ultimate
bearing capacity and failure mechanism of footing.
This research study aims at investigating the potential benefits of using the reinforcement
to improve the bearing capacity and reduce the settlement of strip footing on clay. To
implement this objective, many numerical 2D-analyses by finite elemen
t method / Plaxis
program were performed to study the behavior of reinforced soil foundation. And then we
carry out a parametric study of the most effective parameter on bearing capacity. The
results showed that the inclusion of reinforcement can significantly improve the bearing
capacity and reduce the footing settlement. The strain developed along the reinforcement is
directly related to the settlement. The results also showed that the inclusion of
reinforcement can redistribute the applied load to a wider area, thus minimizing stress
concentration and achieving a more uniform stress distribution. The redistribution of
stresses below the reinforced zone can result in reducing the settlement of the underlying
weak clayey soil.
The problem of slope stability is considered as a main geotechnical problem due to the
significant damage (material or moral) related to failure. This paper aims to study the
influence of piles on the stability of slopes loaded with strip footing a
nd investigating the
parameters affected on stability (location of pile row relative to the slope crest X , piles
spacing S , piles length L and edge distance of the footing b ). This study has been realized
in two phases : the first phase consists in establishing a numerical model for sand slope by
using finite element analyses program (FLAC3D) and determining the footing settlement at
crest of slope before using piles and after reinforcing , after that the numerical results is
compared with the experimental ones (reference case ). A close agreement between
experimental and numerical curves is noticed .The second phase deals with studying the
influence of most important parameters such as ( piles length ,piles spacing, pile row
location relative to the slope crest on stability and edge distance of the footing) on the
slope stability. The results of parametric study have shown the piles installed near the slope
crest is more efficient in reinforcing where the safety factor is increased by reducing the
distance between row of piles and slope crest and the greatest value for safety factor when
X=0.7Lx . The currently study showed the efficiency of piles to increase the ultimate
bearing capacity with increasing edge, after that at b=3B the increase in ultimate bearing
capacity decreased. Also the slope stability depends significantly on pile length and it
increases even reaching the length equals the height of the slope. At other hand, the safety
factor is reduced by increasing the piles spacing, so that the efficiency of pile is
disappeared when pile spacing equals to six times pile diameter(UBCR<1.1).
This research study aims at investigating the potential benefits of using the
reinforcement to improve the bearing capacity and reduce the settlement of strip footing on
clay. To implement this objective, many numerical 2D-analyses by finite elemen
t method /
Plaxis program were performed to study the behavior of reinforced soil foundation. And
then we carry out a parametric study of the most effective parameter on bearing capacity.
The results showed that the inclusion of reinforcement can significantly improve the soil’s
bearing capacity and reduce the footing settlement. The strain developed along the
reinforcement is directly related to the settlement. The results also showed that the
inclusion of reinforcement can redistribute the applied load to a wider area, thus
minimizing stress concentration and achieving a more uniform stress distribution. The
redistribution of stresses below the reinforced zone can result in reducing the settlement of
the underlying weak clayey soil.
