Influence of relative density of soil on performance of fiber-reinforced soil foundations

An experimental study has been carried out for studying the influence of combinations of relative densities of two layered soil system. The model tests have been performed for the case of circular and ring footings resting on randomly distributed fiber reinforced sand (RDFS) layer overlying unreinforced sand bed. The influence of relative density on, different type of footings i.e. circular and ring (ri/ro = 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6) footings; percentages of fiber in RDFS layer i.e. 0.5%, 0.75%, 1.00%, and 1.25%; and thickness of RDFS layer i.e. 0.5B, 0.75B, and 1.00B have been studied. Results have indicated that relative density, of both the RDFS layer as well as the bottom unreinforced sand layer, significantly influences the ultimate bearing capacity as well as the settlement. Improvement in terms of bearing capacity ratio (BCR) is more when top RDFS layer is compacted at 70% relative density with bottom unreinforced sand having 30% relative density. Moreover, in terms of settlement reduction, maximum improvement is observed when both the layers were compacted at 70% relative density.