Performance of geosynthetic-reinforced granular piles in soft clays: Model tests and numerical analysis

The laboratory model tests and numerical analyses have been performed on reinforced granular piles installed in very soft clay. The granular piles were reinforced with geosynthetic in the form of vertical encasement, horizontal strips and combined vertical-horizontal reinforcement. The short term-displacement control model tests were carried out either only a granular pile loaded or with an entire area loaded. The laboratory results in the form of vertical load intensity-settlement behaviour were compared with that obtained from FEM software, PLAXIS 3D. The results indicated significant improvement in ultimate load intensity and stiffness of treated ground due to inclusion of geosynthetic.