Semi-Deep Skirted Foundations and Numerical Solution to Evaluate Bearing Capacity

摘要

Semi-deep foundations are a remarkable solution in conditions where the soil beneath the foundation is loose to a great depth and there is no possible way to use any way of soil improvement and applying piles would not be a logical way considering their cost and time of enforcing. Skirted foundations are a type of semi-deep foundations that can penetrate to the soil up to two times of their breadth. Estimating bearing capacity of these foundations is a long geotechnical problem for engineers whether under absolute or combined loading because of their usage in offshore and onshore projects. For estimating the vertical bearing capacity of these foundations, series of finite element analyses were performed for a range of embedment ratios to investigate the effect of the length of the skirt. The foundation has been modelled with two different types of soil and the results validated with previous analytical, numerical and experimental researches. In addition, the bearing capacity of a skirted foundation under combined loading in V-H space has been analyzed by this approach and the 2-dimentional failure envelope has been presented.