Geotechnical performance of shell foundations on unreinforced and reinforced sandy soils

This study presents the experimental results and numerical analyzes on the conical and pyramidal shell foundations located on loose unreinforced and reinforced with geogrid sand. The results have been compared with the values studied for flat circular and square foundations. Laboratory studies were performed on different types of shell foundations with different apex angles using small-scale physical modeling. In order to extend of study for determination of the effect of various conditions of foundation’s depth to width ratio and the number of geogrid layers on bearing capacity ratio, numerical analyses have been done by limit analysis method. The results have shown that, in general, increasing the depth of the foundations and the use of reinforcing structures ameliorate the geotechnical performance of foundations in both flat and shell models, although this enhancement is more evident in plane foundations. The load bearing capacity for the foundations with 180°, 120°, 90°, and 60° apex angles is put up to 40%, 36%, 32%, and 28%, respectively by rising in the foundation depth to Df/B=0.5, and is raised to 76%, 67%, 61%, and 55%, respectively by the growth of the foundation depth to Df/B=1.0. The use of geogrids increases the bearing capacity of plane foundations more than the shell foundations. The use of a single geogrid layer increased the bearing capacity of the foundations on the soil surface by an average of 79%, while the use of two layers of geogrid increased the bearing capacity by 86%, reflecting the fact that the use of two layers of geogrid will not significantly improve the bearing capacity in comparison to the condition when the soil is reinforced with a single geogrid layer. Bearing capacity of buried foundations with Df/B=0.5 is increased to 50% and 53% by using a single geogrid layer and double geogrid layer, respectively, and with Df/B=1.0 is increased to 28% and 30% by using a single geogrid layer and double geogrid layer, respectively, in comparison to foundations which are built on surface unreinforced soil. For foundations on the soil surface with 180°, 120°, 90°, and 60° apex angles, using a single geogrid layer increases the average bearing capacity to 99%, 81%, 75%, and 60%, respectively, and the use of two layers of geogrid increases to 110%, 90%, 78%, and 62%, respectively. These conditions are less pronounced for buried foundations and the increase in load bearing capacity for footings with all apex angles is about 50% for Df/B=0.5 and 29% for Df/B=1.0. The use of two layers of geogrid will have less impact on the foundations with smaller apex angles.