Numerical Study of Foundation Behavior on Reinforced Soil with Waste Tire Shreds

Waste production is one of the greatest problems of the modern world. One of the most difficult and growing in amounts waste is scrap tires. The most common method of utilization of end-of-life tyres is by their incineration, which raises much concern in terms of air pollution. These problems produced the need to reuse the tire waste in beneficial ways in geotechnical applications. The aim of this research is to investigate numerically the effect of using tire shred-sand mixtures on bearing capacity and settlement of shallow foundations using finite element software plaxis ver. 8.6. The Rubber-Sand layer was placed beneath the foundation in thicknesses of 0.5 up to 1.5 times the foundation width B. It was found that the ultimate bearing capacity of foundations constructed on reinforced soil was increased considerably up to 42% with a decreased settlement.