Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Transportation Geotechnics, cilt.56, 2026 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
The dimensions of footings play a critical role in determining their ultimate bearing capacity. However, no study in the literature has examined the effect of aspect ratio (AR) under geocell-reinforced conditions. Moreover, previous studies have typically employed fabricated geocells designed for field applications or geogrid-based geocells, in which the geometric dimensions and tensile properties were not appropriately scaled for laboratory model testing. To address these gaps, the present study pioneers the use of 3D-printing technology, which enables the precise simulation of both the geometric dimensions and tensile stiffness of geocells in accordance with established scaling principles, thereby advancing the understanding of geocell-reinforced footings with varying aspect ratios. This study comprises laboratory footing model tests that examines the performance of both unreinforced, scaled 3D-printed geocell-reinforced loose and dense sandy soils to assess the impact of varying aspect ratios of 1, 3 and 10 on the ultimate bearing capacity (qult) in terms of footing pressure (q)-settlement ratio (s/B) behavior, critical settlement ratio ((s/B)cr), soil surface displacement (δ), improvement factor (If), reduction in settlement (RS) and the shape factor (Sγ) based on unit weight of soil. The results from tests on dense and loose sandy soils revealed that the maximum ultimate bearing capacity (qult) occurred at an aspect ratio (AR) of 1 for reinforced cases and AR of 3 for unreinforced cases while the minimum qult was consistently observed at AR of 10 across all tests. Similarly, the maximum Sγ was recorded at AR of 1 for reinforced tests and at AR of 3 for unreinforced tests for both loose and dense sandy soil. Moreover, Sγ also increased for both unreinforced and geocell-reinforced conditions as the internal friction angle increased. It was observed that soil surface displacement (δ) profile was found to influence by AR. Although a linear relationship between the If and RS was evident in the reinforced loose sand cases, this correlation was not observed in the dense sand tests.