Load Bearing Capacity of Cohesive-Frictional Soils Reinforced with Full-Wraparound Geotextiles: A Numerical Investigation

Abstract

This numerical study aims to enhance the bearing capacity of shallow foundations built over weak soils by investigating different soil types and geotextile reinforcement configurations using PLAXIS 2D software. The research focuses on two main techniques: a simple horizontal reinforcement layout and a full wraparound method, where geotextile fully surrounds the soil including lateral and top sides, and is filled with soil from the inside and additionally covered from the top. Several key parameters were analyzed, including the embedment depth of the top geotextile layer (U), the width of the reinforcement (W), the vertical spacing between layers (H), and the number of geotextile layers (N). The results showed that the full wraparound configuration significantly outperformed the simple horizontal reinforcement in terms of bearing capacity improvement. The study also identified optimal ranges for the dimensionless parameters U/B, W/B, H/B, and N. These findings offer practical insights into cost-effective and performance-optimized design strategies for reinforced soil foundations.