Experimental and Numerical Study of Eccentrically Loaded Strip Footings Resting on Reinforced Sand

Abstract

An experimental and numerical study of the behavior of an eccentrically loaded strip footing resting on geosynthetic-reinforced sand is presented. Particular attention was given to simulate footings constructed on unsymmetrical geogrid layers with eccentricity either direction of the footing. Several configurations of geogrid layers with different number, length, layer eccentricity along with the effect of the sand relative density, and the load eccentricity were investigated. A numerical study on a plane strain prototype footing was performed using finite element analysis. Test results indicate that the footing performance could be appreciably improved by the inclusion of layers of geogrid leading to an economic design of the footing. However, the efficiency of the sand-geogrid system is dependent on the load eccentricity ratio and reinforcement parameters. A close agreement between the experimental and numerical trend lines is observed. Based on the numerical and experimental results, critical values of the geogrid parameters for maximum reinforcing effect are established.