Abstract
A number of small scale 1g laboratory model footing tests were conducted to investigate the factors contributing to improvement of bearing capacity of soft clay reinforced with geotextiles. The present paper investigation indicates the following: (1) the geotextiles with high frictional force are effective for bearing capacity improvement, (2) improvement effect of geogrids is exerted by restrainment of edges and by combining the unwoven geotextile. (3) the effect of sand mat overlaid on soft clay on bearing capacity improvement is most exerted in the combination with geogrid.
The numerical analysis as well as the experiments prove that combination of geogrid with sand mat is particularly useful for bearing capacity.
