The influence of soil structure on the bearing response of circular footings has been investigated using the Structured Cam Clay model. It was found that under drained conditions, failure of the soil beneath the footing occurs as a punching shear failure and under undrained conditions, failure occurs as a local shear failure. A parametric study has been carried out by varying the parameters which characterise the structural features of the soil. A method was presented to obtain the relationship between the bearing pressure and footing displacement for a circular footing resting on a structured soil deposit, provided the response of the same soil in the reconstituted state, is known. Application of the new method to a practical problem has been demonstrated. The bilinear bearing pressure curves predicted using the new method shows very good agreement with the finite element simulations.
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