MODELLING OF FOUNDATIONS ON

REINFORCED SOIL

By
B Divya Jyothi
N Pooja
Sai Manoj
M Meghanath

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 CONTENTS
 Introduction
 Objectives
 Literature
 Methodology
 Results
 Conclusions
 Time frame
 References

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 1.INTRODUCTION
 Reinforced soil is the combination of soil and linear reinforcing strips

that are capable of bearing stresses.

Fig.1.Soil with reinforcement strips

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  Soil reinforcement is a technique used to improve the strength of soil

using different engineering methods.

 A long time ago , natural fibre is used to reinforce the soil. This

technique did not have a high yield and required a lot of time for the
soil to recover.
 The recent materials used for reinforcement are Geosynthetics.

 Geosynthetics are cost-effective, more profitable and highly adaptable.

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 MECHANISM OF REINFORCED SOIL

Fig.2.Experiment showing mechanism of

reinforced soil
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 MATERIALS USED AS REINFORCEMENT
 A variety of materials can be used for reinforcement are as follows,

These Strips are formed from aluminium, or

copper and coated with chemicals to protect
from erosion.

Fig.3.Steel strips

These are formed from fibre glass and are

highly chemical resistant.

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Fig.4.Glass Fibre
 Coir is fibrous materials found between the
hard internal shell and outer coat of a
coconut.

Fig.5.Coir

The jute fibre comes from the stem and

outer skin of jute plant and are of high
strength.

Fig.6.Jute Fibre
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 Geotextiles are porous geosynthetics that
resemble a thick strong cloth or blanket
with its strands.

Fig.7.Geotextile

Geogrids are mesh like or grid like

geosynthetics with square or rectangular
openings

Fig.8.Geogrid
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 APPLICATIONS OF SOIL REINFORCEMENT
o Due to a wide variety of soil , Geotechnical engineers experience a number

of challenges during soil reinforcement. These include,

1.Embankment

Geogrids are placed in embankments

during construction on weaker soils
and it will be stable to receive loads

Fig.9.Geogrid reinforced embankment

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 2.Steep Slopes

Layers of Geotextile are placed

strategically on the land to steepen the
slopes to increase the tensile strength
of soil for minimum sliding. Fig.10.Geotextile reinforced slope

3.Retaining walls

Layers of Geogrid are placed on the

land and retaining wall is constructed
which holds the soil firmly behind
them.

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Fig.11.Geogrid reinforced retaining wall
 ADVANTAGES OF REINFORCED SOIL 
 Imparts strength to the soil.

 Smaller quantities of earth fill is needed.

 Construction can be directly done on soft ground.

 The technique is not a separate operation in the construction process, but is a

part of the placing and compaction of the earth fill. Hence structures can
often be built more quickly than by conventional methods.

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 LIMITATIONS OF REINFORCED SOIL
 If steel reinforcement is used, it can be corroded easily.

 Polymeric materials degrade when exposed to ultra-violet rays and can

be damaged by rough handling on site or by sharp stones in fill.

 When constructing on soft soils care has to be taken not to overstress

the reinforcement.

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 2. OBJECTIVES
 To study the bearing capacity of shallow foundations.

 To understand the concept of soil reinforcement.

 To study the types of materials used for soil reinforcement.

 To model the foundation on sand and clay which is reinforce with

Geogrids using Plaxis 2D.

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 3.LITERATURE
Title Author Source and Description
year

Numerical Mohamed MATEC Web In this study, a series of laboratory tests

analysis of G.Arab, of were conducted to estimate the bearing
shallow Maher Omar, Conferences capacity of strip footing. The tests were
foundations Ali Tahmaz 120, 2017 conducted in a box of size 1.1m x 0.3m x
on geogrid 0.914 m and aluminium strip of 0.76 m.
reinforced The numerical modelling is also performed
soil using PLAXIS 2016. They found that the
bearing capacities calculated from the
numerical analysis are smaller than
obtained from the experimental results.

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 Title Author Source, Year Description

Numerical Safa. Djeridi, 13th Arab Presented the details of a numerical study
Modelling of Sadok Structural using the Fast Lagrangian Analysis of
Reinforced Benmebarek Engineering Continua (Flac) software. The numerical
Strip Footings and Lamine Conference, computations have been conducted to
by Belounar 2015 evaluate the ultimate bearing capacity of a
Geosynthetic strip footing placed over unreinforced and
reinforced sand bed where a single
horizontal layer of reinforcements were
used. The analysis clearly shows that the
inclusion of the reinforcement causes a
significant increase in the bearing capacity.

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 Title Author Source, Year Description

Numerical Adel Belal , Proceedings of the In this study, the sand bed were
Evaluation of Nabil Nagy, International prepared in a steel tank with inner
Bearing Ahmed Conference on dimensions 0.9 x 0.9 x 0.6 m . A steel
Capacity of Elshesheny Civil, Structural plate is used to represent the footing of
Square Footing and Transportation dimensions 0.15 x 0.15 x 0.025 m . The
on Geosynthetic Engineering,2015, Numerical Modelling is also carried out
Reinforced 143-1 on square footing rested on reinforced
Sand and unreinforced sand using ANSYS
package. Reducing the distance
between the reinforcement layers,
increase the bearing capacity of the
reinforced soil.

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 4.METHODOLOGY

Fig.12.Reinforced foundation Fig.13.Foundation adopted for modelling

Recommendations
Strip Footing size =2 x 2m
Geogrids length = 3 x Width of footing
Geogrid
Spacing between geogrids = 0.15 x width of
Soil
footing
17 More than 3 Geogrid layers are not beneficial
 PARAMETERS USED FOR NUMERICAL MODELLING
SAND CLAY
Drained Undrained
γunsat =17 kN/m3 γunsat =18 kN/m3

γsat =20 kN/m3 γsat =20 kN/m3

E=1.3 x 104 kN/m2 E=1.32x 103 kN/m2
μ=0.3 μ=0.3

C=1 kN/m2 C=50 kN/m2

Ø=300 Ø=00

FOOTING
GEOGRID
EA=5 x 10 kN/m 6

2
EA=1200 kN/m
EI=8.5 x 10 kN m /m
3

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Line Load = 600 kN
 Fig.14.Displacement of footing on Sand without
Geogrids

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 Fig.15.Displacement of footing on Sand with
Geogrids

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 DEFORMED MESH PATTERN FOR SAND

Fig.16.Without Geogrids Fig.17.With Geogrids

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 Fig.18.Displacement of footing on Clay
without Geogrids

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 Fig.19.Displacement of footing on Clay with
Geogrids

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 DEFORMED MESH PATTERN FOR CLAY

Fig.20.Without Geogrids Fig.21.With Geogrids

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 5.RESULTS
Displacement (mm)
No. of Geogrid layers
SAND CLAY

No Geogrid 5.8 0.075

2 0.2 0.073

3 0.14 0.072

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 6.CONCLUSIONS
 The maximum displacement has decreased by 97% when the footing is founded on

reinforced sand.

 The maximum displacement of footing is approximately same for both the cases

i.e., reinforced and unreinforced clay.

 As the depth increases, the maximum displacement decreases both in sand and

clay.

 There is no drastic decrease in maximum displacement when 2 and 3 layers of

geogrids are used.

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 7.TIME FRAME
8
6
4
2
0

WEEKS

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 REFERNCES
 B. Panigrahi , P. K. Pradhan,2019. “Improvement of bearing capacity of soil by

using natural geotextile”. International Journal of Geo-Engineering.

 K.R.Arora,2004. “Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering”. Standard

Publishers and distributors.

 Safa. Djeridi, Sadok Benmebarek and Lamine Belounar,2015. “Numerical

Modelling of Reinforced Strip Footings by Geosynthetic”. 13th Arab Structural

Engineering Conference.

 Tanika Roychowdhury, Jay N. Meegoda,2015. “Numerical Modelling of Soil

Improvement Using Geo-fabrics”. Journal of Engineering Research and

Applications ,Vol.5,Issue 10,part-1,50-59.

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  Mohamed G.Arab, Maher Omar, Ali Tahmaz, 2017. “Numerical analysis of shallow

foundations on geogrid reinforced soil ”. MATEC Web of Conferences 120.

 Adel Belal , Nabil Nagy, Ahmed Elshesheny,2015. “Numerical Evaluation of

Bearing Capacity of Square Footing on Geosynthetic Reinforced Sand”.
Proceedings of the International Conference on Civil, Structural and Transportation
Engineering,143-1.

 Chao,Sao-Jeng,2008. “Performance Study of Geosynthetic Reinforced Shallow

Foundation”. International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical
Engineering.34.

 Prashant Patil, Ipupu Mena, Shubham Goski, Yogesh Urs,2016. “Soil Reinforcement

Techniques”. International Journal of Engineering Research and Application,

Vol.6,Issue 8, (Part-2),25-31.

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