An Experimental Study on Behaviour of Bearing Capacity and Settlement of Circular and Square Footing Resting on Reinforced Sand Bed Stratified with Lateritic Soil

Abstract

The present investigation was undertaken to study the behavior of reinforced sand in improving the bearing capacity and settlement resistance under square footing and circular footing. Comparison is carried between reinforced and unreinforced condition under circular and square footing and also a lateritic soil is used as layer in sand bed. Comparison is carried between bearing capacity of only sand bed and lateritic layer mixed sand bed with reinforced and unreinforced condition under both footings. Locally available river sand was used along with 'geogrid' as a reinforcing material. The parameters selected were depth of the top layer of reinforcement below the footing and different shape of footings. Relationships between intensity of loading and settlement have been presented to determine the influence of the above parameters on the bearing capacity and settlement. It can be concluded that by a suitable arrangement of the reinforcing geogrid, the bearing capacity and settlement resistance of sand is improved as compared to the unreinforced sand. The effect of bearing capacity of sand below the footing for square plate and circular plate with variation in shape and the effect of permissible settlement is evaluated.