Buried footings in random soils: comparison of limit analysis and finite element analysis

Abstract

The limit analysis and the finite element method are powerful tools for analysing the bearing capacity of foundations. Previous research mainly focused on the foundations in uniform soils. In realistic conditions, soil properties are always varying spatially due to complex physical, chemical, and biological process in earth evolution. This paper investigates the bearing capacity and failure mechanism of footings buried at various depths in clays with spatially variable distribution of undrained shear strength using the lower bound limit analysis, the upper bound limit analysis, and the finite element analysis. Results show that the bearing capacity increases with increasing buried depths in ..