Behaviour of Prestressed Reinforced Foundation Beds Overlying Weak Soil

Geosynthetics in foundation beds demonstrate their beneficial effects only after considerable settlements, since the strains occurring during initial settlements are insufficient to mobilize significant tensile load in the geosynthetic. Prestressing the reinforcement is a promising technique to overcome this shortcoming. This paper presents results from a series of laboratory scale bearing capacity tests carried out on model square footings to investigate the improvement in bearing capacity of geosynthetic reinforced foundation bed overlying weak ground due to prestressing the reinforcement. Prestressing the reinforcement in foundation bed results in significant improvement of bearing capacity of weak soil. A numerical model is suggested to predict the improvement in bearing capacity of footings with all the three cases - i.e., Granular Bed (GB), Reinforced Granular Bed (RGB), or Prestressed RGB on weak soil - by assuming a punching shear mechanism. These predictions are compared with laboratory scale experimental results. The proposed model is found to give good prediction of bearing capacity improvement. Finite element analyses are carried out using the FE program PLAXIS to study the effect of prestressing the reinforcement. Results obtained from finite element analyses are found to be in reasonably good agreement with the experimental results.