Effect of Tire Layer on Bearing Capacity of Foundation

Abstract

Growth of economic, demographic and building activities in Iraq has necessitated carrying out geotechnical investigations for soft soils to study behavior of foundation resting on these soils. The laboratory test has been carried out to analyze the effect of tire as reinforcement to decrease the excessive settlement of soft soil. The influence of depth and area of tire layer is examined on the settlement of shallow foundation. For this purpose, a square foundation (60 ∗60) mm is used for the model test. All tests are conducted on the surface of homogeneous soil layer 250 mm; in a box steel (600 x 300 x 300) mm. The undrained shear strength of soil is 12 kPa. The reinforcement layer (tire layer) has been placed at depth 0.5B, B and 2B (B is the width of the square foundation) in the soft soil under foundation. The area of tire layer (B x B), (1.5B x 1.5B) and (2B x 2B) are investigated too. The analysis of the test results indicated that using tire layer under foundation has a significant effect on the settlement improvement (St/Su). It is worth noting, that the settlement improvement (St/Su) is decreased with the increase of the depth of tire layer. The results shows that the maximum increase in bearing capacity reaches approximately to 130% at area of tire layer (B x B) and depth equal to 0.5B.