Proceedings of Indian Geotechnical Conference

December 13-15,2012, Delhi (Paper No. E 512.)

PERFORMANCE OF SHALLOW FOOTING ON GEOCELL REINFORCED CLAY BED

USING EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL STUDIES

A. Hegde, Research Scholar, Deptt. of Civil Engg, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, [email protected]
T.G. Sitharam, Professor, Deptt. of Civil Engg., Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, [email protected]

ABSTRACT: This paper summarizes the beneficial effect of geocell reinforcement in soft clay beds through 1-g model plate
load tests and numerical simulations using FLAC2D. New commercially available PRS Neoweb geocells are used in the
investigation; which is known for its high strength and durability. Results show that provision of geocell increases the load
carrying capacity of soft clay bed by 5 times. The overall performance of the clay bed improves further due to the provision of
planar geogrid at the base of the geocell. Numerical results are also in the same line with the experimental findings.

INTRODUCTION LABORATORY MODEL TESTS

Construction in soft ground has always been a big challenge Laboratory model plate load tests were conducted on test bed
for the engineers. Construction in weak ground requires cum loading frame assembly. Foundation bed was prepared
treating large areas to a greater depth to ensure the safety of in a test tank having dimension of 900mm length, 900mm
the superstructure. Whenever the soft soil is encountered, the width and 600mm height. The footing used in the study was
general tendency is to go for the deep foundation technique square in shape with 150mm sides, made up of rigid steel
like plié foundations or the ground improvement technique plate with 20mm thickness. The base of the footing was
like vibro stone columns. But in the situations involving the made rough by coating a thin layer of sand to it using epoxy
low to moderate loading condition, deep foundations become glue. Footing was loaded with hand operated hydraulic jack
very costly and in such cases more economical solutions are supported against self-reacting frame. The load applied to
constantly sought after. Reinforcing the soil with the geocell the footing was measured through a pre-calibrated proving
is emerging as the one of the most the cost effective as well ring, which was placed between hydraulic jack and the
as alternative solution to the deep foundation techniques in footing with the ball bearing arrangement. Schematic
some cases. representation of test setup is shown in Fig.1.
It is well known fact from the past research is that the geocell
reinforcement increases the load carrying capacity of the
foundation bed. Since late 1970’s, many researchers have
studied the beneficial effect of the cellular reinforcement
through laboratory model plate load tests such as Brooms and
Massarach (1977) and Mitchell et al. (1979) . But the
majority of the past studies carried out were using laboratory
prepared 3D cells made up of paper, geogrids, PVC
(Polyvinyl Chloride), geotextiles etc. (Dash et al. 2001;
Sitharam and Sireesh, 2004; EI Sawwaf and Nazer, 2005;
Madhavi Latha and Somwanshi, 2009; Tafreshi and Dawson ,
2010). Very few researchers directly used the commercially
available geocell in their studies (Guido et al. 1989; Kief and
Rajgopal, 2008). Use of the commercial geocell in the
laboratory study is more relevant because, those are the ones,
which will be directly utilized in soft soil. In the present
study, new commercially available Neoweb geocells (PRS-
Fig. 1 Schematic representation of test set-up
330) are used; which is known for its high strength and
durability.
Natural silty clay was used to prepare the foundation bed.
The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the
The liquid limit, plastic limit and specific gravity of the soil
improvement in the overall performance of the footing in the
were 40%, 19% and 2.66. As per Indian Standard Soil
presence of commercially available Neoweb geocell. Results
Classification System (ISSCS), soil can be classified as clay
of the laboratory model tests and the numerical simulations
with medium compressibility (CI). The geocell used in the
on a square footing resting on reinforced clay beds are
study was made up of polyethylene with a density of 0.95
reported in this paper.
g/cm3. The each cell is 250mm long, 210mm wide and
150mm deep. The thickness of the strip is 1.53mm with cell
to cell seam strength is 2150N. Biaxial geogrid made up
Polypropylene with aperture size 35mm x 35mm was used.
A.Hegde & T.G.Sitharam
Ultimate tensile strength of the geogrid was 20kN/m. The pressure because the footing has already undergone the
clayey soil was first pulverized and then mixed with a failure.
predetermined amount of water. The moist soil was placed in
the airtight container for 3-4 days for allowing uniform
distribution of moisture within the sample before kneading
again. Soil was uniformly compacted in 25mm thick layers
to achieve the desired height of the foundation bed. The
sides of the tank were coated with Polythene sheets to avoid
the side friction. By carefully controlling the compaction
effort and the water content of the test bed, a uniform test
condition was maintained in all the tests. In order to
determine the degree of saturation, unit weight, moisture
content and undrained shear strength of the soil mass, the
undisturbed samples were collected at different location of
the test bed. Table 1 represents the properties of the test bed
maintained throughout the testing program.

Table 1 Properties of the soft clay bed

Parameters Values
Fig. 2 Photograph of the test set-up
Moisture content 26%
Degree of saturation 91%
Unit weight 18.63 kN /m3
Avg. dry density 14.81 kN/m3
Undrained shear strength 5kPa

Above the foundation bed, geocell was placed to full width of

the tank at the depth of 0.1B (where, B is the width of the
footing) below the bottom of the footing. The geocell was
filled up with the clean sand using pluviation technique to
maintain the uniform density. Upon filling the geocell with
the sand, the fill surface was leveled and footing was placed
in a predetermined alignment in such a way that the load
from the jack would act at the center on the footing. At the
center of the footing plate a recess was made to accommodate
the ball bearing arrangement through which vertical loads
were applied onto the footing. The footing was placed
carefully at the center of the loading jack supported against Fig. 3 Variation of bearing pressure with footing settlement
the reaction frame to avoid the eccentric loading. The load
transferred to the footing was measured through the pre- But in case of geocell reinforcement, there was a reduction in
calibrated proving ring placed between ball bearing and the slope about at settlement about 7% of the footing width
hydraulic jack. Footing settlements were measured through and after which slope remains constant till 37% with
two dial gauges (D1 and D2) placed on either side of the continuous increase in the bearing pressure indicating that
center line of the footing. The deformations of the soil there is no clear bearing capacity failure. Interestingly at the
surface were measured by dial gauges (S1 and S2) placed at a same settlement of 7% of the footing width, where the
distance 1.5B (B is the width of the footing) from the center reduction in slope was observed in pressure settlement
line of the footing on either side. Photograph of the test setup behavior, the clay surface started heaving. Formation of the
is shown in Fig. 2. surface heaving indicates the occurrence of the local failure
in the geocell soil composite around the footing. At this
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS stage, due to mobilization of additional strength and stiffness
Fig. 3 presents the typical pressure settlement responses for in the clay bed due to presence of geocell reinforcement, it
different cases. Footing settlement (S) is expressed in non- continues to take up the additional loading. Also the
dimensional form in terms of footing width as S/B (%). It interconnected cells form a panel that acts like a large mat
can be observed that, for the unreinforced case, the slope of that transfers the imposed load to an extended area, leading to
the pressure settlement curve becomes nearly perpendicular a better performance of the foundation beds.
beyond a settlement about 20% of the footing width A similar trend was observed in the pressure settlement
indicating the footing is unable to resist the additional behavior with additional planar geogrid at the base of the
geocell. But at any particular settlement to footing width
 `

Performance of shallow footing on geocell reinforced clay bed using experimental and numerical studies
ratio, higher bearing pressure was observed as compared to software. Elastic-perfectly plastic Mohr Coulomb model was
only geocell reinforcement. Provision of the basal geogrid used for modeling the behavior of soil. Analyses were
not only mobilizes the additional strength in the clay bed but carried out under controlled velocity loading of 2.5 x E-5
also it resists the downward movement of soil due to the m/step. Only half portion of the test bed was modeled using
footing penetration. symmetry to reduce the computational effort and the time.
The enhancement in the bearing capacity of the foundation The FLAC2D model with the details of loading and the
bed, due to the inclusion of the reinforcement is measured boundary conditions are shown in Fig.5. The size of the
through a non-dimensional parameter called bearing capacity mesh was as the same size of the test bed used in the
improvement factor (If), which is defined as, experimental studies. The displacement along the bottom
boundary was restricted in both horizontal as well as vertical
qr direction. The side boundaries were restrained only in the
If = (1) horizontal direction, while the displacements were allowed in
qo the vertical direction. Roughness of the footing was
simulated by restraining the surface nodes representing the
Where qr is the bearing pressure of the reinforced soil at the base of the footing in the horizontal direction.
given settlement and qo is the bearing pressure of
unreinforced soil at the same settlement. This improvement
factor is similar to the bearing capacity ratio reported by
Binquet and Lee (1975). When the ratio is beyond the
ultimate bearing capacity of the unreinforced soil, the
ultimate bearing capacity (qult) is used instead of q0.
Variations of bearing capacity improvement factor for
different tests are compared in the Fig. 4. 150mm
In case of geocell reinforcement, at initial settlement of 5% of
the footing width, If value equal to 5 was observed. In other
words, If =5 means the 5 time increments in the load carrying
capacity of the foundation bed as compared to unreinforced
bed. It can be observed from the figure that the If value
decreases with the increase in the settlement in only geocell
case. About 6 times increment in the load carrying capacity
was observed with the additional planar geogrid at the initial
settlements. In this case also, If values decrease with the
increase in the settlement up to settlement value of 20% of
the footing width and after which it again increases. If=5
observed at the settlement of 25%. Hence it is evident from
the figure that the provision of the additional planar geogrid
contributes to the strength at higher settlement. Hence it is
always beneficial use planar geogrid layer at the base of the
geocell mattress. Fig.5 FLAC2D model with details of loading and boundary
condition

FLAC2D is two dimensional explicit finite-difference

program, which does not facilitate the user to model the 3-
dimensional nature of the geocell. Therefore, the geocell
layer in filled with sand was modeled as an equivalent
composite layer with improved strength and stiffness
parameters. A similar approach was also adopted by
Madhavi Latha and Somwanshi (2009). The elastic
properties are obtained from the experimental pressure
settlement behavior using the method proposed in the
Appendix D of the Engineering Manual: 1110-1-1904, U.S
Army Corps of Engineers (1990). Table 2 presents the
details of the elastic properties used in the analysis.
Fig.4 Bearing capacity improvement factor for different cases

NUMERICAL STUDY
Experimental set up was simulated numerically using the
FLAC2D (Fast Lagrangian Analysis of Continua in 2D)
A.Hegde & T.G.Sitharam
Table 2 Elastic properties used for modeling ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors extend their gratitude to PRS Mediterranean Ltd.
Only Geocell Israel, for supplying the geocells for conducting the
Unreinforced
Geocell +Geogrid experiments. The first author is thankful to Indian Institute of
Shear Science, Bangalore (IISc) for providing the research
modulus, G 0.1 15 25 scholarship to complete the work.
(MPa)
REFERENCES
Bulk modulus, 1. Binquet, J., Lee, L. K., (1975). Bearing capacity tests on
0.2 30 50
K (MPa) reinforced earth slabs. Journal of Geotechnical
Poison's ratio 0.3 0.3 0.3 Engineering Division, ASCE 101 (12), 1241–1255.
2. Brooms, B.B., Massarach, K.R., (1977). Grids mat a
In the simulation of the unreinforced soil behavior, shear new foundation method. Proceedings of 9th
strength parameters were obtained from the actual clay bed International Conference of Soil Mechanics and
itself. But in reinforced case, suitable value of the apparent Foundation Engineering, Tokyo, 1,433-438.
cohesion was assumed. Comparisons of the pressure 3. Dash, S.K., Krishnaswamy, N.R., Rajagopal, K., (2001).
settlement behavior of experimental and numerical studies Bearing capacity of strip footings supported on geocell-
are presented in the Fig. 6. It can be observed from the figure reinforced sand. Geotextiles and Geomembranes 19,
that, there is a good agreement between the experimental and 235–256.
the numerical results. However in the case of the clay bed 4. EI Sawwaf, M., and Nazer, A., (2005). Bearing capacity
reinforced with additional planar geogrid, FLAC2D of circular footing resting on confined granular soil.
overestimated the bearing pressure values by about 15%. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental
engineering, ASCE, 131 (3), 359-366.
5. EM 1110-1-1904. Settlement Analysis. Appendix-D,
U.S Army Corps of Engineers (1990), D6 –D8.
6. Guido, V.A., Sobiech, J.P., Christou S.N., (1989). A
comparison of texturized and non-texturized geoweb
reinforced earth slabs. Proceedings of Geosynthetics
1989, 215-230.
7. Keif, O., Rajagopal, K., (2008). Three dimensional
cellular confinement system contribution to structural
pavement reinforcement. Geosynthetics India-08,
Hyderabad, India.
8. Madhavi Latha, G., Somwanshi, A., (2009). Effect of
reinforcement form on the bearing capacity of square
footing on sand. Geotextiles and Geomembranes 27,
409-422.
Fig. 6 Comparison of experimental and numerical results of 9. Mitchell, J.K., Kao, T.C., Kavazanjiam Jr, E., (1979).
pressure settlement behavior Analysis of grid cell reinforced pavement bases.
Technical Report No GL-79-8, U S Army Waterways
CONCLUSIONS Experiment Station, July, 1979.
Provision of Neoweb geocell increases the load carrying 10. Sitharam, T.G., Sireesh, S., (2004). Model studies of
capacity of soft clay bed by 5 times. Load carrying capacity embedded circular footing on geogrid reinforced sand
further increases (about 6 times of the unreinforced bed) due beds. Ground Improvement 8 (2), 69–75.
to the provision planar geogrid at the base of the geocell. 11. Tafreshi, Moghaddas, S.N., Dawson, A.R., (2010).
Hence it is always beneficial to use the combination of the Behavior of footings on reinforced sand subjected to
geocell and the planar geogrid in soft soils. Besides repeated loading comparing use of 3D and planar
increasing the load carrying capacity, provision of the geotextile. Geotextiles and Geomembranes 28, 434-447.
reinforcement also reduces the settlement and the surface
heaving. Moreover, pressure settlement behavior obtained
from the FLAC2D also is in good agreement with the
experimental findings. Hence combinations of geocell and
geogrid can be recommended to use in pavement sectors as
an alternative to the ground improvement technique like
vibro stone columns to improve the strength of soft subgrade.
However further studies are necessary to understand the
behavior of geocells under repeated loading.