| Summary: Development of technology gives the opportunity to mankind to build larger, heavier and more complex structures. For geotechnical engineers, faced with transferring the loads that is more complex and increasing, stabilization of soil, and determination of stress distribution and settlement has become inevitable. Geotextiles which have been used in soil stabilization increasingly in recent years affect bearing capacity of soil. Stress distribution in terms of settlement calculation and bearing capacity are some of the most important parameters for foundation design. In this study, several tests were carried out with model strip footing in plane strain conditions in reinforced cohesionless soil and the vertical stress increments occurred in the soil medium due to applied vertical surface loads were determined at several specific locations. In experimental studies, the sand reinforced with geotextile sheet was placed in layers in a tank with three different relative densities and additional vertical stress increments were measured by strain gauges placed at predetermined locations. Subsequently, vertical stress increments were obtained from modeling and analyzing the experimental setup with ANSYS. Additionally vertical stress distribution in soil was calculated with analytical methods based on elasticity theory. As the findings obtained from these studies were examined, it was understood that relative density is a very effective parameters for stress distribution in soils. However, methods based on elasticity theory give rather erroneous results in low relative density reinforced soil.
Key Words: Stress Increment, ANSYS, Strain Gauges, Vertical Stress Distrubition, Reinforced Soil
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