Finite Element Analysis of the Influence of Artificial Cementation on the Strength Parameters and Bearing Capacity of Sandy Soil under a Strip Footing

Artificial cementation is a method commonly used to enhance and improve soil properties. This paper investigates the effect of using different amounts of cement on soil strength parameters and soil bearing capacity, using the finite element method. Experimental tests are conducted on soil samples with different amounts of Portland cement. A 2-D numerical model is created and validated using the numerical modelling software, COMSOL Multiphysics 5.6 software. The study finds that the cohesion, and the angle of the internal friction of the soil samples increase significantly as a result of adding 1%, 2%, and 4% of Portland cement. The results demonstrate that the stresses and strain under the strip footing proposed decrease by 3.24% and 7.42%. Moreover, the maximum displacement also decreases by 1.47% and 2.97%, as a result of adding cements of 2% and 4%. The bearing capacity values obtained are therefore excellent, especially when using the 2% and 4% cement. The increase identified is due to the increased values of the bearing capacity factors. It is concluded that from an economic viewpoint, using 2% cement is the best option.

Seismic bearing capacity of strip footings on rock masses using the Hoeke Brown failure criterion

In this paper,the bearing capacity of strip footings on rock masses has been studied in the seismic case.The stress characteristics or slip line method was used for analysis.The problem was analyzed in the plane strain condition using the Hoeke Brown failure criterion.First,the equilibrium equations along the stress characteristics were obtained and the rock failure criterion was applied.Then,the equations were solved using the finite difference method.A computer code has been provided for analysis.Given the footing and rock parameters,the code can calculate the stress characteristics network and obtain the stress distribution under the footing.The seismic effects have been applied as the horizontal and vertical pseudo-static coefficients.The results of this paper are very close to those of the other studies.The seismic bearing capacity of weightless rock masses can be obtained using the proposed equations and graphs without calculating the whole stress characteristics network.

The use of the node-based smoothed finite element method to estimate static and seismic bearing capacities of shallow strip footings

The node-based smoothed finite element method(NS-FEM)is shortly presented for calculations of the static and seismic bearing capacities of shallow strip footings.A series of computations has been performed to assess variations in seismic bearing capacity factors with both horizontal and vertical seismic accelerations.Numerical results obtained agree very well with those using the slip-line method,revealing that the magnitude of the seismic bearing capacity is highly dependent upon the combinations of various directions of both components of the seismic acceleration.An upward vertical seismic acceleration reduces the seismic bearing capacity compared to the downward vertical seismic acceleration in calculations.In addition,particular emphasis is placed on a separate estimation of the effects of soil and superstructure inertia on each seismic bearing capacity component.While the effect of inertia forces arising in the soil on the seismic bearing capacity is non-trivial,and the superstructure inertia is the major contributor to reductions in the seismic bearing capacity.Both tables and charts are given for practical application to the seismic design of the foundations.

Seismic bearing capacity of a strip footing on rock media

The bearing capacity factors for a rough strip footing placed on rock media,which is subjected to pseudostatic horizontal earthquake body forces,have been determined using the lower bound finite element limit analysis in conjunction with the power cone programming(PCP).The rock mass is assumed to follow the generalized Hoek-Brown(GHB)yield criterion.No assumption needs to be made to smoothen the GHB yield criterion and the convergence is found to achieve quite rapidly while performing the optimization with the usage of the PCP.While incorporating the variation in horizontal earthquake acceleration coefficient(kh),the effect of changes in unit weight of rock mass(γ),ground surcharge pressure(q0)and the associated GHB material shear strength parameters(geological strength index(GSI),yield parameter(mi),uniaxial compressive strength(σci))on the bearing capacity factors has been thoroughly assessed.Non-dimensional charts have been developed for design purpose.The accuracy of the present analysis has been duly checked by comparing the obtained results with the different solutions reported in the literature.The failure patterns have also been examined in detail.

Undrained seismic bearing capacity of strip footing adjacent to a heterogeneous excavation

The analysis of the bearing capacity of strip footings sited near an excavation is critical in geotechnics.In this study,the effects of the geometrical features of the excavation and the soil strength properties on the seismic bearing capacity of a strip footing resting on an excavation were evaluated using the lower and upper bounds of the finite element limit analysis method.The effects of the setback distance ratio(L/B),excavation height ratio(H/B),soil strength heterogeneity(kB/cu),and horizontal earthquake coefficient(kh)were analyzed.Design charts and tables were produced to clarify the relationship between the undrained seismic bearing capacity and the selected parameters.

A dynamic large-deformation particle finite element method for geotechnical applications based on Abaqus

In this paper,the application of Abaqus-based particle finite element method(PFEM)is extended from static to dynamic large deformation.The PFEM is based on periodic mesh regeneration with Delaunay triangulation to avoid mesh distortion.Additional mesh smoothing and boundary node smoothing techniques are incorporated to improve the mesh quality and solution accuracy.The field variables are mapped from the old to the new mesh using the closest point projection method to minimize the mapping error.The procedures of the proposed Abaqus-based dynamic PFEM(Abaqus-DPFEM)analysis and its implementation in Abaqus are detailed.The accuracy and robustness of the proposed approach are examined via four illustrative numerical examples.The numerical results show a satisfactory agreement with published results and further confirm the applicability of the Abaqus-DPFEM to solving dynamic large-deformation problems in geotechnical engineering.

Experimental study on repeatedly loaded foundation soil strengthened by wraparound geosynthetic reinforcement technique

In the recent past,the potential benefits of wraparound geosynthetic reinforcement technique for constructing the reinforced soil foundations have been reported.This paper presents the experimental study on the behaviour of model strip footing resting on sandy soil bed reinforced with geosynthetic in wraparound and planar forms under monotonic and repeated loadings.The geosynthetic layers were laid according to the reinforcement ratio to minimise the scale effect.It is found that for the same amount of reinforcement material,the wraparound reinforced model resulted in less settlement in comparison to planar reinforced models.The efficiency of wraparound reinforced model increased with the increase in load amplitude and the rate of total cumulative settlement substantially decreased with the increase in number of load cycles.The wraparound reinforced model has shown about 45% lower average total settlement in comparison to unreinforced model,while the double-layer reinforced model has about 41% lower average total settlement at the cost of approximately twice the material and 1.5 times the occupied land width ratio.Moreover,wraparound models have shown much greater stability in comparison to their counterpart models when subjected to incremental repeated loading.

Bearing capacity analysis using the method of characteristics

Using the method of characteristics,the bearing capacity for a strip footing is analyzed.The method of characteristics leads to an exact true limit load when the calculations of the three terms in the bearing capacity formula are consistent with one collapse mechanism and the soil satisfies the associated flow rule.At the same time,the method of characteristics avoids the assumption of arbitrary slip surfaces,and produces zones within which equilibrium and plastic yield are simultaneously satisfied for given boundary stresses.The exact solution without superposition approximation can still be expressed by Terzaghi＇s equation of bearing capacity,in which the bearing capacity factor N γλ is dependent on the dimensionless parameter λ and the friction angle φ.The influence of groundwater on the bearing capacity of the shallow strip footing is considered,which indicates that when the groundwater effect is taken into account,the error induced by the superposition approximation can be reduced as compared with dry soil condition.The results are presented in the form of charts which give the modified value（Nwγλc /Nγλc） of bearing capacity factor.Finally,an approximated analytical expression,which provides results in close agreement with those obtained by numerical analysis in this paper,has been suggested for practical application purposes.