FE analysis of the ultimate bearing capacity of geogrid-reinforced and pile-supported foundation of highway embankment

Based on a new highway subsoil reinforce measure by using both geogrid and pile, the plane strain finite element method is used to calculate the ultimate bearing capacity of the foundation of road embankment. Finite element model of the geogrid-reinforced and pile-supported foundation of the embankment is built by PLAXIS. The efficiency of the geogrid on top of the piles to improve the soft soil foundation is proved in this paper. With the rate of replacement unchangeable and changeable, the laws of the effect of the pile diameter and distance in improving bearing capacity of the foundation are presented, in order to propose some reliable and valuable suggestions in the pile-supported foundation optimized design.