FAILURE MECHANISM IN REINFORCED SOIL

FAILURE MECHANISM IN REINFORCED SOIL

Abstract

The development and utilization of geotextiles, geogrids, geomembrane and geocomposites in surface construction work has been nothing short of awesome. The use of geosynthetics for soil improvement has increased greatly over the past decades. Until now many research papers have been published on reinforced earth. This paper provides the basic concepts of failure mechanism in reinforced –soil system. The effect of deep footing and wide slab mechanism has been analysied. Possible modes of failure of geotextile reinforced shallow foundation namely bearing capacity failure above upper geotextile layers, anchorage pullout of geotextile due to deformation tensile failure (breaking) of geotextile and long term deformation (creep) failure have been described. The present study substantiates the consideration of failure mechanism with the design of shallow foundation. To put emphasis on the importance of failure surface, simple failure cases in retaining wall, slopes and pavement have been presented in very short form.