Feasibility study of shallow foundation on geocell reinforced soil in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Geocells are mostly used to strengthen soft soil in many Asian countries in recent days. They provide faster, feasible and environmentally friendly solutions. In Sri Lanka however, Geocell is not much familiar soil improvement technique. This paper discuss the development of a three dimensional numerical model to simulate the behaviour of geocell reinforced sand using PLAXIS 3D and feasibility of geocell as reinforced soil in Sri Lankan construction industry. The shape has a major influence in stress distribution. In this study, a 3D cad model was imported to PLAXIS 3D and modeled using geogrid structural element. Unreinforced, singly reinforced and doubly reinforced cases were investigated in feasibility studies using 3.0m x 3.0m footing prototype. Then optimum B/C ratio (Bearing capacity/Estimated cost) was calculated by changing the footing size (trial and error method).Footing was analysed for an axial load of 1200kN.It was found that footing on doubly reinforced with 1.6m x 1.6m is most feasible footing with soil improvement. Sustainable feasibility study was carried out to check the suitability of geocell in Sri Lankan context. The study suggests that influence of economical performance attributes and social performance attributes' could be higher than environmental performance attributes when geocell is used as soil reinforcement.