Behavior of Square Footings on Single Reinforced Soil

Increasing the bearing capacity of soils has been an important issue thousands of years ago till the time being. In 1960s the French Road Research Laboratory conducted an extensive study to evaluate the benefits of using reinforced soil as a construction technique. Nowadays, it is still an aim to increase the soil bearing capacity either through adding inclusions or through reinforcing sheets. The study aims to demonstrate the effects of embedment ratio and the length ratio of the reinforcing element on the bearing capacity of sand. About fifty plate-loading tests were conducted on steel square model footing of side dimension (B) equal to 100 mm. The effect of relative density of sand, the embedment ratio, and the length ratio of the reinforcing material were studied. It was revealed that the soil reinforcement might successfully increase the bearing capacity. Also it was found that the improvement in the bearing capacity of sand of lower relative density is more pronounced compared with higher relative density sand. The bearing capacity ratio (BCR) was found to be inversely proportional to the relative density of the sand. The most efficient length ratio (L/B) of the soil reinforcement was found to be 3.00, and the optimum embedment ratio (d/B) was found to be 0.30. Finally, the reinforced sand exhibited a failure mode that resembles typical punching-shear failure.