A comparative study of bearing capacity of shallow footing under different loading conditions

ABSTRACT

In the present study, the behaviour of a shallow rectangular foundation placed over the multiple layers of the geogrid reinforced sand under eccentric and oblique loads in both dimensions was studied. Various parameters were investigated in this study including the number of reinforced layers (N), eccentricity (e/B, e/L) and inclination of applied load (α). Bi-axial geogrid (Bx20/20)-reinforced sand and laboratory results were compared with PLAXIS 3D software keeping N, eccentricity ratios and angle of inclination as input parameters. The results present that the value of Ultimate Bearing Capacity (UBC) of model foundation found reduced as the axial eccentricity and inclination of applied loads increased. It also found that multiple geogrid-reinforced layers increased the UBC of about 75%. Finally, the model test results were analysed using PLAXIS 3D. A good agreement was originated between the laboratory results and numerical analysis.

KEYWORDS:

• Eccentric loading
• load inclination
• ultimate bearing capacity (UBC)
• PLAXIS 3D
• rectangular footing
• geogrid

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

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

Additional information

Funding

The present work is supported financially through a Ph.D. scholarship grant [2K16/NITK/PHD/6160052] by The Ministry of Human Resource and Development, Government of India.