Design of Columnar-Reinforced Foundations

Professor Mounir Bouassida

The design of columnar-reinforced foundation usually involves two verifications, first, the bearing capacity and, second, the settlement that can be completed by the acceleration of consolidation settlement. The basis of suggested methodology consists in estimating, first, a minimum improvement area ratio (IAR) complying with the allowable bearing capacity of reinforced soil; then a maximum IAR is derived from the verification of allowable settlement. The suggested methodology of design leads to an optimised IAR complying both with allowable bearing capacity and settlement. As such the overestimation of the quantity of material columns is avoided and a cost effective treatment is provided. Two case histories are analyzed to show up the usefulness of suggested methodology of design, which has been incorporated in recently developed software for the design of reinforced soil by columns. Predicted results by the software are compared to results obtained by existing methods of design.

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