Numerical Evaluation on Improvement of Bearing Capacity of Sand Beds Using 2D and 3D Pipe Geogrid and Its Comparative Study

A 3D pipe geogrid is a geogrid that contains an extruded circular pipe around the aperture of the geogrid. This type of geogrid is newly invented to study its performance and the position it holds in terms of increasing the bearing pressure when compared to that of 2D reinforced and unreinforced sand beds. In this present research work, attempts are made to find out the influence of the 2D geogrid and 3D pipe geogrid on the bearing capacity of the square surface footing overlying sand beds, and a comparative study is made between them. The S/B ratios, i.e., the ratio of spacing of the reinforcements (S) to the width of the footing (B), The relative density of the sand beds, and the height of the pipe in 3D pipe geogrid are the variables set in this study to determine the optimum values of those parameters. A finite element analysis package Abaqus is used for modeling the problem. The soil hardening Drucker–Prager model is used as the constitutive modeling of the sand beds to simulate the sand behavior. A Hooke's model (linear-elastic) is used to simulate the 2D and 3D reinforcements. To validate the result of the finite element analysis the experimental program is set out for unreinforced, 2D reinforced, and 3D reinforced sand beds for one case and the results are validated.