Study on the settlement of raft foundations by different methods

摘要

In order to study effects of the size, the stiffness of foundation, and the applied load on the thickness of compressed zone and the settlement of raft foundations, this paper analyze methods of settlement calculation such as the method of summation of partial settlements, the method of elastic layer of finite thickness, and the finite element method with the PLAXIS 3D software. Effects of the size of foundation are considered with many areas of foundation such as 150 m_(2), 338 m_(2), 600 m_(2), 938 m_(2), 1350 m_(2), 1838 m_(2), and 2400 m_(2); and effects of the applied load of the upper structure are considered with many values of 150 kN/m_(2), 200 kN/m_(2), and 250 kN/m_(2). There are remarkable differences between settlements calculated by the analytical methods and ones simulated by PLAXIS 3D. From the analysis and evaluation of calculated results, this paper proposes a suitable method to determine the thickness of compressed zone, as well as the method of calculation of settlement for raft foundations.