An Experimental Study into Behaviour of Circular Footing on Reinforced Soil

Abstract

Several investigations are reported in literature pertaining to the numerical and experimental studies on the behaviour of footings subjected to vertical loads on un-reinforced soil and the reinforced. Several works reported in the literature deal with the use of waste materials in various civil engineering works to enhance certain soil characteristics. Hardly any literature is found on reinforced soil technique using rubbergrids as a reinforcing material for foundation on soft clays. In view of this, experimental investigations are reported on the study of load-deformation behavior of a model square footing on reinforced soil in respect of a two-layered system consisting of clay as sub-grade and mine waste as backfill material. The footing was subjected to axial load. Two different types of reinforcing materials such as Kolon Geogrid (KGR-40) and rubber grids derived out of waste tyres were used in the study. The study revealed appreciable increase in ultimate bearing pressure and decrease in settlement with the provision of single layer reinforcement. Further, rubbergrid performed better than the Geogrid in respect of BCR and SRF. The study underscores significance of solid waste materials such as mine wastes and discarded tyres as effective civil engineering construction materials.