Evaluating Bearing Capacity of Layered Soils Using Finite Element Analysis Software

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Date

2017-12

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Publisher

Addis Ababa University

Abstract

The bearing capacity of the foundation is a primary concern in the field of foundation engineering. Predicting ultimate bearing capacity of a footing on layered soil is very important as it is a requirement for any design. The failure mechanism of a soil under footing and the bearing capacity value mainly depend on soil properties of each layer and the layer thickness. It is well established that safe bearing capacity of soil is affected by various factors such as the depth of ground water table (GWT), soil properties, layering of soils, size and shape of the foundation, depth of foundation etc. among many other factors. Hence most of the studies focused on homogenous soils but in practice foundations often consist of layered soils, it is very important to consider layered soils. In this thesis a numerical model is developed using PLAXIS. Finite element analysis is carried out using Mohr-coulomb failure criteria to represent three dimensional soil models. For Comparison purpose the layered soil bearing capacity has been analyzed by Meyerhof and Hana method which is classical approach method. After that by comparing results from FEM and classical approach the analysis has been presented.

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Keywords

Bearing Capacity, layered soil, Plaxis, Finite Element Analysis

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