Abstract
The paper presents a method to estimate the bearing capacity of a strip footing on a geosynthetic reinforced foundation bed (RFB) laid over soft compressible ground stabilized with granular trench. Madhav and Vitkar's solution for bearing capacity of granular trench-supported footing in soft ground, Vesic’s cavity expansion theory that considers the compressibility/stiffness of soft ground together with its undrained shear strength and the effect of kinematics (the effect of the transverse resistance in addition to the axial resistance of the reinforcement, Madhav and Umashankar) are incorporated in Meyerhof’s analysis for layered soils, to arrive at the ultimate capacity of the reinforced foundation bed-granular trench system. A parametric study quantifies the effects of various parameters on the bearing capacity of the strip footing. Consideration of compressibility/stiffness of soft ground together with kinematics of failure indicates relatively enhanced values of bearing capacity of footing over those corresponding to incompressible ground or reinforced two-layered system considering axial resistance of reinforcement alone. Predictions compare well with experimental results in literature.
