Comparison of bearing capacity of footings with same area resting on reinforced sand

Abstract

The Paper presented from an experimental study for circular and square footing with same area that resting on sand bed. The steel model footing with 12 cm diameter (113 cm2) and square footing with 10.6 cm width in sand with relative density 60% were used. For reinforced conditions geogrid layers were used. The settlement-load responses of the tests were investigated. Results indicated that ultimate bearing capacity increased in square footing in comparison with circular footing, and when reinforcements used with embedment depth (u/D=0.42 or u/B=0.47), the bearing capacity ratio (BCR) was increased greatly in circular footing in comparison with square footing. The BCR increases with increasing the number of geotextile layers for both of the footings (square and circular) but for reinforced conditions the geogrid layers have a better effect for circular footing in comparison with square footing and the rate of increasing BCR for circular footing is higher than square footing.