United States Department of Transportation
i
Use of reinforced soil foundation (RSF) to support shallow foundation : summary report, November 2008.
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2008-05-01
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Edition:Summary report; Nov. 2008.
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Abstract:This research study investigates the potential benefits of using reinforced soil foundations to improve the bearing
capacity and reduce the settlement of shallow foundations on soils. To implement this objective, a total of 117
tests, including 38 laboratory model tests on silty clay embankment soil, 51 laboratory model tests on sand, 22
laboratory model tests on Kentucky crushed limestone, and 6 large-scale field tests on silty clay embankment soil
were performed at the Louisiana Transportation Research Center to study the behavior of reinforced soil
foundations. The influences of the different variables and parameters contributing to the improved performance of
reinforced soil foundation were examined in these tests. In addition, an instrumentation program with pressure
cells and strain gauges was designed to investigate the stress distribution in soil mass with and without
reinforcement and the strain distribution along the reinforcement. The test results showed that the inclusion of
reinforcement can significantly improve the soil’s bearing capacity and reduce the footing settlement. The
geogrids with higher tensile modulus performed better than geogrids with lower tensile modulus. The strain
developed along the reinforcement is directly related to the settlement, and, therefore, higher tension would be
developed for geogrid with higher modulus under the same footing settlement. The test results also showed that
the inclusion of reinforcement will redistribute the applied load to a wider area, thus minimizing stress
concentration and achieving a more uniform stress distribution. The redistribution of stresses below the reinforced
zone will result in reducing the consolidation settlement of the underlying weak, clayey, soil which is directly
related to the induced stress. Insignificant strain measured in the geogrid beyond its effective length of 4.0 ~ 6.0B
indicated that the geogrid beyond this length provides a negligible extra reinforcement effect.
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