Experimental study of bearing capacity of strip footing on geogridreinforced sand slope

9th International Conference on Geosynthetics - Geosynthetics: Advanced Solutions for a Challenging World, ICG 2010 --23 May 2010 through 27 May 2010 -- Guaruja --In this study the results of a series of reduced-scale laboratory model tests performed on both unreinforced and geogrid-reinforced sand slopes loaded with a strip footing were presented. The aims of this investigation are to determine the effect of the geogrid reinforcement on the bearing capacity and settlement behavior of the strip footing and to suggest an optimum geometry of geogrid placement to obtain maximum reinforcing effect. In the study, the effect of the slope angle, the relative density of sand, the footing dimension, and the geogrid type on the bearing capacity behavior of the strip footing were also investigated. Test results show that the inclusion of geogrid layer at the appropriate location in the fill slope significantly improves the load settlement behavior and ultimate bearing capacity of the strip footing. The maximum improvement was obtained at depth of the 0.5 times the width of the footing. The results also indicate that the bearing capacity of the footing on geogrid reinforced sand slope depends greatly on the slope angle, footing dimension, the geogrid type, and the relative density of sand