Experimental investigation for pressure distribution on flexible conduit covered with sandy soil reinforced with geotextile reinforcement of varying widths

This paper presents the laboratory investigation that involved a series of model footing load tests over the reinforced sandy soil cover-conduit system in a rigid test tank. The aim of this investigation has been to determine the effect of width of geotextile reinforcement on the pressure distribution around the conduit along with deflection of the conduit and footing settlement against the applied pressure. The width of geotextile reinforcement was varied from Bc to 4Bc; Bc being the diameter of conduit. The pressure distribution around the conduit against the applied surface footing pressure was investigated for both reinforced and unreinforced conditions along with the footing settlement. The results have been presented graphically as the design charts. It is observed that the reinforcement layer improves the load-bearing capacity of the footing and reduces the pressure on the crown and springline of the conduit. For a given applied pressure, an increase in width of reinforcement is found to be more effective in reducing pressure on the crown and springline of conduit along with reduction in both vertical and horizontal deflections of conduit. The correlations have been developed for their use by practising engineers for designing the geotextile-reinforced sandy soil cover over the conduit.