Bearing capacity of strip footings on sand slopes reinforced with geogrid and grid-anchor

This paper presents the effect of a new type of geogrid inclusion on the bearing capacity of a rigid strip footing constructed on a sand slope. A broad series of conditions, including unreinforced cases, was tested by varying parameters such as geogrid type, number of geogrid layers, vertical spacing and depth to topmost layer of geogrid. The results were then analyzed to find both qualitative and quantitative relationships between the bearing capacity and the geogrid parameters. A series of finite element analyses was additionally carried out on a prototype slope and the results were compared with the findings from the laboratory model tests and to complete the results of the model tests. The results show that the bearing capacity of rigid strip footings on sloping ground can be intensively increased by the inclusion of grid-anchor layers in the ground, and that the magnitude of bearing capacity increase depends greatly on the geogrid distribution. It is also shown that the load-settlement behavior and bearing capacity of the rigid footing can be considerably improved by the inclusion of a reinforcing layer at the appropriate location in the fill slope. The agreement between observed and computed results is found to be reasonably good in terms of load-settlement behavior and optimum parameters. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.