Calculation of vertical bearing capacity factor of strip footing by FEM

Abstract

This paper presents the calculation of vertical bearing capacity factor Nγ of strip footings, which is generally representative of the footing of the buildings, by using the finite element algorithm based elasto-viscoplastic solution. The soil behaviour is idealized as elastic perfectly plastic satisfying the Mohr Coulomb yield criterion with only non-associated flow rules because it tends to treat the actual behaviour of soil in which value of its frictional angle is always different from that of dilative angle. The total bearing resistance is computed using the superposition assumption in Terzaghi classical equation of the three basic components. The comparison of the present solutions with the previous published works including experimental and numerical studies have been presented and discussed. The results reveal in close agreement with the existing published data. In the nutshell, by applying the non-associated soil flow rule representing the real behaviour of soil, the conservation of the superposition assumption is confirmed. Therefore, it could conclude that the results obtaining from these techniques may be confidently applied to a wide range of soil bearing resistance problems.