BEARING CAPACITY OF CLAYEY SOIL REINFORCED WITH GEOGRID

Abstract

In many cases, shallow foundations built up on top of cohesive soil deposits or soil embankment having high plasticity, results in low load bearing capacity and excessive differential settlement of the footing more than the permissible limit, or low shearing resistance of soil. This may lead to the structural damage, reduction in the durability of the structure, or decrease in the performance of the structure. To counteract these problems suitable engineering measures are required for ensuring satisfactory performance from structure. Conventionally the weak cohesive soil was excavated and replaced with a sufficiently thick layer of stronger granular fill, or by increasing the dimensions of the footing, or by combination of the two methods. These methods of improving bearing capacity of soil were not economical solutions and were time consuming. Also, stability of soft cohesive soil was difficult because of low permeability of soil which will take lot of time to consolidate. Therefore, the use of geosynthetic material has emerged. Now days the use of geosynthetic material has been widely increased in geotechnical structures like slopes, retaining wall, embankment etc. It can also be used to reinforce cohesive soils and give an alternative method and more economical solution.

Geosynthetic is synthetic products used to stabilize terrain. They are polymeric products and are widely been used to solve many civil engineering problems. There are total eight main categories of geosynthetic product available: geotextile, geonets, geogrids, geomembrane, geosynthetic clay liner, geofoam, geocells, and geocomposite. Their polymeric nature makes them suitable for use in soil where high durability is required. For e.g. - for construction of road, for stable embankment, for stabilizing retaining wall, for stabilizing earthen slope.