FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF PLATES RESTING ON REINFORCED SOIL BED

Abstract

The study pertains to the use of finite element method to predict the load- deformation characteristics of geotextile-reinforced sand bed subjected to strip loadings considering both the soil and the geotextile to be linearly elastic. The soil-geotextile interaction has been modeled by assigning the contact conditions at the interface instead of using the conventional joint elements. The developed method has been validated by reanalyzing some benchmark problems and comparing the results. For homogeneous soils, it has been. found that the optimal placement depth of a single layer of geotextile is 0.6 times the width of the footing from the surface of the soil; the reinforcement is not very effective at small deformations and at optimal depth the modulus of elasticity if increased beyond 200 times the modulus elasticity of soil does not further reduce the settlement. For non homogeneous soils at any given value of Poisson's ratio, the percentage reduction in settlement due to the reinforcement is almost of the same order as in case of homogeneous soil with young's modulus equal to the same at unit depth of the non-homogeneous soil. For a two layer system the ratio of young's modulus and Poisson's ratio play a greater role than the reinforcement in reducing the settlement.