STUDY ON IMPROVEMENT IN BEARING CAPACITY OF SOIL USING GEOGRID REINFORCEMENT

The influence of geogrid reinforcement on bearing capacity of granular soil is investigated in model tests. The tests were performed for an isolated footing resting on a sand to establish the Load versus settlement response of Unreinforced and Reinforced Soil system. The result shows that the bearing capacity increases significantly with decrease in vertical spacing of geogrids. The observations proved that the Geogrid reinforced system creates an enhanced resistance and minimizes the differential settlement. A numerical study is also carried out using Plaxis 2D and the results are compared with the experimental results. The results thus obtained from the FEM compares reasonably with the results of 1g model test.