Bearing Capacity of Ring Footings on Reinforced Clay

One of the common methods for soil improvement in order to increase the bearing capacity of shallow foundations is reinforcing the soil using geosynthetics. In this paper, the bearing capacity of ring footings on clay reinforced with geogrid has been studied. Laboratory and numerical investigation using the finite element computer code, Plaxis have been performed. The effects of different factors such as the distance to the first layer of reinforcement, vertical distances between layers, and the number of reinforcing layers, the optimum depth of the reinforcement and the stiffness of the reinforcements on the increase of the bearing capacity ratio, of circular and ring foundation have been examined.