Numerical Study On The Effect Of Geometrical Properties Of Geocell On The Bearing Capacity Of Shallow Foundation Resting On Saturated Marl

Shallow foundation construction on soft and loose soils results in unacceptable deformation, high strain, and failure. Therefore, the implementation of shallow foundation on this type of soil can cause problems in terms of bearing capacity and settlement. Therefore, soil improvement is a logical and appropriate way. Geocell is a series of three-dimensional cells and its main application is to reinforce loose soils. Due to the mechanism of geocell interaction with the soil, the use of geocell reinforcement makes it possible to achieve a greater bearing capacity. In this study, using Abaqus finite element software, the effect of geometrical of geocell on the increase of bearing capacity of shallow foundation resting on saturated marl soil has been investigated. Also, using the analysis of the designed numerical models results, a correlation for homogeneity of the improved soil with geocell reinforcement has been presented instead of considering the soil reinforcement relations. The correlation coefficient and the presented diagram illustrate the high capability of the proposed correlation to estimate the equivalent shear strength to the geocell reinforced soil environment. The analysis results show that by increasing the geocell height for greater than , where S and B are the foundation settlement and the foundation diameter, respectively, the effect of the geocell height on increasing the bearing capacity is noticeable and it is more noticeable in looser soils. Moreover, by increasing the geocell pocket size up to (m) and the geocell length by twice the foundation diameter, there is an increase in the bearing capacity of the foundation and then, there is no noticeable change in the bearing capacity. With an increase in the length of the geocell, it can be stated that the optimal length of the geocell layer is about twice the diameter of the foundation. In order to produce a correlation for estimating the equivalent shear strength of the soil environment reinforced with geocell, a number of numerical models were designed.