Improving Bearing Capacity of Loose Sand under the Isolated Footings, Using Soil Reinforcement Technique

Abstract

The aim of this research is to study experimentally the different factors contributing to the improvement in load carrying capacity and reduction of settlement beneath isolated footings placed on reinforced loose sand materials. To implement this objective, a small model of footing on sand reinforced by aluminium foils strips was used. The parameters studied in this research included, the number of reinforcement layers, the spacing from first layer of reinforcement to bottom of footing, the spacing between reinforcement layers and the width of reinforcement. All these parameters contribute to improve the load carrying capacity of soil and reduce the settlement of footing. The tests results indicated that Increasing the number of reinforcement layers increased the load carrying capacity to 61%, increasing the width of reinforcement strips increased the load carrying capacity to 30%, decreasing the spacing from first layer of reinforcement to bottom of footing increased the load carrying capacity to 20% and decreasing the spacing between reinforcement layers increased the load carrying capacity to 36%. The tests results showed that the inclusion of reinforcement within sand matrix can significantly improve the load carrying capacity of soil and reduce the footing settlement. The results have indicated that the reinforced soil technique is effective in improving the strength of weak soils beneath isolated footing.