An Analytical Model of Horizontal-Vertical Geogrid Reinforced Foundation

This paper proposed a theoretical solution to predict the bearing capacity of a new horizontal-vertical (H-V) geogrid reinforced foundation under strip footing, incorporating the key mechanism including the friction and the interlock between soils and the horizontal plane of H-V geogrid, and the confinement of the vertical plane of the H-V geogrid. The input to the equation includes soil properties (e.g., unit weight, soil friction angle, Terzaghi’s bearing capacity coefficient) and H-V geogrid properties (e.g., tensile strength, geometry, aperture size, and dimension of the geogrid). The results showed that the theoretical equation accurately predicted the bearing capacity of the H-V geogrid as well as the conventional geogrid-reinforced foundation. Contrary to the traditional geogrid, the vertical component of the H-V geogrid offered effective soil resistance. When the height of the vertical element of the H-V geogrid increases from 0 to 0.04 m, the bearing capacity of the H-V geogrid foundation was increased about 1.44 times compared to the conventional one. When the vertical element spacing is reduced from 1.60 to 1.33 times the width of strip footing, the bearing capacity rise from 1.20 to 2.63 times compared to a traditional geogrid-reinforced foundation.