Bearing capacity of conical footings on clays considering combined effects of anisotropy and non-homogeneity

ABSTRACT

A spudcan is one of the foundation systems widely used to support the load transferred from a jack-up platform for most offshore drilling operations. The spudcan is an axisymmetric footing with a conical shape. The study on the stability effects of anisotropic and non-homogeneous clays on the bearing capacity of this kind of footings is yet to be found in the current literature. This paper presents novel plastic solutions of the bearing capacity factor for conical footings on clays with linearly increasing anisotropic shear strength. The finite element limit analysis is employed to perform the bearing capacity solutions based on three dimensionless parameters including the cone apex angle, the strength gradient ratio, and the ratio between the undrained shear strength ratio obtained from the triaxial compression test and triaxial extension test. The proposed equations in this study provide a reliable solution to improve the current design standard for conical footings in anisotropic and non-homogeneous clays.

KEYWORDS:

• Bearing capacity
• conical footing
• anisotropy
• non-homogeneity
• limit analysis

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for valuable and constructive comments and suggestions, which greatly contributed to improving the quality of the final version of the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Thammasat University Research Unit in Structural and Foundation Engineering.