SEMIANALYTICAL FINITE-ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF A STRIP FOOTING ON AN ELASTIC REINFORCED SOIL

A plane strain elastic interaction analysis of a strip footing resting on a reinforced soil bed has been made by using a combined analytical and finite element method (FEM). In this approach the stiffness matri x for the footing has been obtained using the FEM, For the reinforced soil bed (halfplane) the stiffness matrix has been obtained using an a nalytical solution. For the latter, the reinforced zone has been ideal ised as (i) an equivalent orthotropic infinite strip (composite approa ch) and (ii) a multilayered system (discrete approach). In the analysi s, the interface between the strip footing and reinforced halfplane ha s been assumed as (i) frictionless and (ii) fully bonded. The contact pressure distribution and the settlement reduction have been given for different depths of footing and scheme of reinforcement in soil. The load-deformation behaviour of the reinforced soil obtained using the a bove modelling has been compared with some available analytical and mo del test results. The equivalent orthotropic approach proposed in this paper is easy to program and is shown to predict the reinforcing effe cts reasonably well. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserve d.