Centrifuge model and numerical studies of strip footing on reinforced transparent soils

Abstract

This paper presents the results of centrifuge model tests to investigate the deformation behavior of unreinforced and reinforced transparent soil foundations under strip loading. Digital image analysis technique was employed to obtain the soil displacement field and strain distribution of reinforcements. Two-dimensional numerical models were developed and verified using the test results. The soil was modeled as a linearly-elastic perfectly-plastic material with Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion. The reinforcement was characterized using a linearly-elastic model with considering rupture behavior. Moreover, a parametric study was conducted to investigate the load-settlement response of foundations, distribution of reinforcement tension and failure sequence of reinforcements. The experimental and numerical studies show that the results obtained from the numerical simulations are in good agreement with the results of the centrifuge model tests. The two-dimensional finite difference model developed using the user-defined functions coded into the program FLAC can better simulate the progressive failure of the reinforcement layers in the tests. The failure sequence of reinforcement layers is not affected by the modulus and internal friction angle of soils and the reinforcement length, but is closely related to the combining effect of spacing and number of reinforcement layers and the combining effect of reinforcement stiffness and strength.