Embedded strip footing in a geotextile-reinforced sand slope

Abstract

This paper presents experimental and numerical investigations of dense sand slopes supporting an embedded strip footing, considering both unreinforced and geotextile-reinforced cases. The effect of footing location, defined in terms of embedment depth D and edge distance e, on the bearing capacity of the footing was investigated. The results show that the bearing capacity of the footing increased with an increase in D and e. The inclusion of one layer of geotextile reinforcement in the dense sand slope further increased the bearing capacity. This benefit was expressed in terms of BCRu, which is defined as the ratio of the ultimate bearing capacity for the reinforced case to the ultimate bearing capacity for the unreinforced case. The maximum value of BCRu( ≈ 2·5 − 3) was observed for D/B = 0 and e/B = 0 where B is the width of the footing, while the minimum value of BCRu( ≈ 1·5) was obtained for D/B =  1 and e/B = 3.