Elastic Settlement Analysis of Rigid Footings Relying On The “Characteristic Point” Concept

In the present paper, the problem of finding the location of the so-called “characteristic point” of flexible footings is revisited. As known, the settlement at the characteristic point, is equal to the uniform settlement of the respective rigid footing. The cases of infinitely long strips and circular footings are studied fully analytically. For the case of rectangular footings, analytical results (for flexible footings) are compared with the respective numerical results (for rigid footings) obtained from 3D finite element analysis (210 cases were examined). As shown, the location of the characteristic point may greatly deviate from the well-known values reported in the literature, as it strongly depends on the thickness and Poisson’s ratio value of the compressible medium. For rectangular footings this location also depends on their aspect ratio, L/B. The location of the characteristic point with respect to the center of footing for the various cases examined is given in tabular form. Strain influence area values (Aj=ρjEs/qB) are also given for the convenient calculation of the settlement (ρj) of footings, especially the rigid, rectangular ones; q is the uniform surcharge of footing and Es the soil modulus.

Bearing Capacity Factor of Circular Footings on Two-layered Clay Soils

Geotechnical engineers often deal with layered foundation soils. In this case, the soil bearing capacity assessment using the conventional bearing capacity theory based on the upper layer properties introduces significant inaccuracies if the top layer thickness is comparable to the rigid footing width placed on the soil surface. Under undrained conditions the cohesion increases almost linearly with depth. A few theoretical studies have been proposed in the literature in order to incorporate the cohesion variation with depth in the computation of the ultimate bearing capacity of the strip and circular footings. Rigorous solutions to the problem of circular footings resting on layered clays with linear increase of cohesion do not appear to exist. In this paper, numerical computations using FLAC code are carried out to assess the vertical bearing capacity beneath rough rigid circular footing resting on two-layered clays of both homogeneous and linearly increasing shear strength profiles. The bearing capacity calculation results which depend on the top layer thickness, the two-layered clays strength ratio and the cohesion increase rates with depth are presented in both tables and graphs, and compared with previously published results available in the literature. The critical depth for circular footing is found significantly less than for strip footing. Doi: 10.28991/cej-2021-03091689 Full Text: PDF

Elastic Settlement Analysis of Rigid Rectangular Footings on Sands and Clays

In this paper an elastic settlement analysis method for rigid rectangular footings applicable to both clays and sands is proposed. The proposed method is based on the concept of equivalent shape, where any rectangular footing is suitably replaced by a footing of elliptical shape; the conditions of equal area and equal perimeter are satisfied simultaneously. The case of clay is differentiated from the case of sand using different contact pressure distribution, whilst, additionally, for the sands, the modulus of elasticity increases linearly with depth. The method can conveniently be calibrated against any set of settlement data obtained analytically, experimentally, or numerically; in this respect the authors used values which have been derived analytically from third parties. Among the most interesting findings is that sands produce “settlement x soil modulus/applied pressure” values approximately 10% greater than the respective ones corresponding to clays. Moreover, for large Poisson’s ratio (v) values, the settlement of rigid footings is closer to the settlement corresponding to the corner of the respective flexible footings. As v decreases, the derived settlement of the rigid footing approaches the settlement value corresponding to the characteristic point of the respective flexible footing. Finally, corrections for the net applied pressure, footing rigidity, and non-elastic response of soil under loading are also proposed.