COMMENTS ON GEOTEXTILE REINFORCEMENT: Increase in Ultimate Bearing Capacity of Foundations.

Figures 7.14 and 7.15 show  that geotextile reinforcement contributes  to the increase in ultimate bearing capacity of foundations on sand and saturated clay.

However, at low settlement level of the foundation, geotextile reinforcement hardly contributes to the load bearing capacity. This is primarily because geotextiles are made of flexible material. Sufficient settlement of the foundation will be necessary to give the layers of geotextile a catenary shape and to develop tension to resist the stress transmitted from the foundation. The design of most foundations with a width B greater than about 1 m will be controlled by the allowable level of settlement rather than the ultimate bearing capacity. For that reason, geotextiles may not be a suitable material for soil reinforcement in the improvement of bearing capacity.

FIGURE 7.14 Model test results of Guido et al. [4] on geotextile-
reinforced sand for a square surface foundation

FIGURE 7.15 Model test results of Sakti and Das [5] on geotextile-reinforced
saturated clay for a continuous surface foundation

REFERENCES.