3-Dimensional numerical modelling of sand bed reinforced with 3D grids of triangular form

In this paper, the bearing capacity improvement of a square footing resting on sand bed reinforced with 3D geogrids of triangular form is numerically studied with the help of Plaxis 3D software. The performance of 3D geogrid reinforced sand is also compared with planar geogrid reinforced sand to understand its effectiveness. In the numerical modelling, the soil behaviour is simulated by linear elastic-perfectly plastic Mohr-Coulomb model. The 3Dgeogrid and planar geogrid is modelled using geogrid structural elements available in the software. The model was validated with the experimental results and found to be in fairly good agreement with each other. The effect of various parameters on the behaviour of reinforced soil system was also investigated. It was found that the bearing capacity of multilayered planar geogrid reinforced sand bed improved by 3.68 times, while, the 3D geogrid reinforced sand bed shows 6.8 times improvement compared to the unreinforced sand bed.