Prediction of Limit-Bearing Capacity of Footings on Geocell-Reinforced Soils

This paper pertains to the influence of introducing geocell-reinforced granular fill beneath a footing overlying soft soil. Extensive laboratory investigations are available to understand the behavior of geocell reinforcement for footings under various subsoil conditions. Several numerical investigations have been carried out using foundation models to understand the behavior of geosynthetic reinforced granular layers. Existing literature has minimal discussion on analytical modeling of geocell reinforcement. A simple and easy approach to develop a general understanding of the behavior of footings on geocell-reinforced soils would be to consider the contact pressure distribution of the geocell-reinforced bed. Three types of variations of contact pressure distributions, that is, uniform (for short geocell), linear (for intermediate width geocell), and exponential decay (for wide geocell), were considered. The present study investigates the response of strip and circular footings on geocell-reinforced soil. The ultimate bearing capacity of the footings is estimated using Terzaghi's approach based on the general shear failure mechanism. The present analytical model was validated against two independent experimental studies, and the results found to be in reasonable agreement