Pore Water Pressure Analysis in Coir Mat-Reinforced Soil Incorporating Soil-Structure Interaction

The proposed study investigates the effectiveness of reinforcing the soft soil by a coir mat, a natural material, to act as a seismic soil-isolation medium. A 3D finite element simulation in PLAXIS 3D software has been carried out on models of five-storey buildings resting on raft foundations in soft soil with and without the soil-isolation mechanism. This study also deals with the coir composites, coir–polyethylene and coir–rubber were proposed to increase the durability of the coir mat. The isolated soil-structure system was exposed to four different earthquake motions, such as the ground motions corresponding to the elastic design spectrum for Zone III as per the Indian standard code (IS 1893 (Part 1): 2016), the scaled Northridge earthquake (1994), El Centro earthquake (1940) and Chi-Chi earthquake (1999). A pore water pressure analysis of soil bed has been carried out to study the efficacy of these materials to reduce the excess pore water pressure generated in soil under earthquake loading. The other parameters, such as shear strain mobilized shear strength, effective stress in soil, and roof acceleration, in the building were analyzed. Isolation efficiencies of reinforcement materials to reduce the excess pore water pressure generated in soil under different earthquake motions obtained are 75–82%, 71–80% and 67–72% with coir, coir–polyethylene and coir–rubber, respectively. The resulting shear strain in soil reinforced by isolation mats is lower than that in unreinforced soil because the isolation mats strengthen the soil. Compared to the unreinforced soil, the mobilized shear strength and effective stress in the soil are increased when it is reinforced with coir and coir composites. The roof acceleration and bottom acceleration in the building got reduced by the isolation mechanism.