A Semi-empirical Method for Studying Load-Settlement Behavior of Geocell-Reinforced Footings

A numerical procedure is developed in this paper using the limit equilibrium method (LEM) to assess the load-settlement behavior of the geocell-reinforced shallow footings resting on 2D and 3D homogeneous foundation beds. The proposed bearing capacity of the geocell-reinforced footings is a combination of both the unreinforced bearing capacity and an additional load-bearing of the geocell mattress caused by the confinement and the load dispersion. Instead of total mobilization of the resisting mechanisms, which is the underlying assumption of the available LEMs, a partially mobilized resisting mechanism is assumed to be a function of the footing settlement and geocell aspect ratios, and the unknowns of the hypothesized formulations are obtained through an optimization procedure so that the results of the theoretical expression are compatible with those of the experimental model tests. The proposed analytical formulation adequately captures the load–displacement behavior and is considered a helpful tool to predict the behavior of the geocell-reinforced footings reinforced foundations.