ANALYTICAL SOLUTION FOR CALCULATION OF BEARING CAPACITY OF SHALLOW FOUNDATIONS ON GEOGRID-REINFORCED SAND SLOPE

Abstract

The bearing capacity of foundations resting on slopes is commonly calculated usingempirical equations. In recent years, it has been demonstrated that geosynthetic reinforced soil canenhance the foundation bearing capacity. In this paper, an analytical method for determination ofthe ultimate bearing capacity of surface strip footing on a sand slope reinforced with geogrid layersis presented. The angle of the slope with the horizontal direction is varied within 20o to 40o. In thisstudy, the Coulomb-type lateral earth pressure theory has been used to compute the foundationbearing capacity. It is assumed that geogrid layers act such that the active earth pressures arereduced. The results obtained from the proposed method are compared with experimental andnumerical results. Parametric studies have also been performed to show the effects of contributingparameters such as number of geogrid layers, locations of reinforcement layers, soil properties andthe slope angle on the bearing capacity of strip foundations resting on the reinforced sand. Theresults indicate that the magnitude of bearing capacity of strip footings on the sand slope can besignificantly increased by using geogrid layers.