KSCE JOURNAL OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, vol.25, no.4, pp.1295-1307, 2021 (SCI-Expanded)
Recently, utilization of wastes has become increasingly important in aspects of sustainability and waste disposal. The aim of this study is to investigate the feasibility of using glass manufacturing waste (GMW) for the first time in the relevant literature, geogrids and GMW-geogrid reinforcement to increase the load bearing capacity of a clayey soil (CS) by large-scale model experiments. Initially, optimum water ratios were determined for different ratios of GMW and CS. Secondly, the optimum mixing ratio of GMW was determined. Next, the optimum soil depth improved with GMW and the optimum number of geogrids were investigated. Consequently, a bearing capacity ratio (BCR) increase of 2.23 times was acquired and the optimum mixture ratio was attained for 25% GMW addition. Improvement depth (R-d) and optimum number of geogrids (N) were obtained as 1.75D (D: diameter of the model foundation) and 3, respectively. The highest degree of improvement was reached for geogrids-GMW combination and a minimum waiting period of 7 days was advised in the sequel of such soil improvement work. Out of the observation of micro-structural analyses results, both physical and chemical interactions were encountered throughout the occurrence period of bearing capacity improvements.