Bearing capacity of precast thin-walled foundation in sand

Abstract

The prime objective of this study is to look at the bearing capacity of a thin-walled spread foundation system in cohesionless soils. In this regard, laboratory-footing load tests were on the aforementioned footing in loose and dense sands. The Johor Bahru sand used is this study was dried and characterised in the laboratory. To investigate the beneficial effect of the thin walls on the bearing capacity of the footing, laboratory footing load tests were also conducted on a simple surface footing and the results were compared. For verification purposes, the experimentally obtained bearing capacities of thin-walled foundation were checked against finite-element analyses. The experimental findings show an enhancement of the bearing capacity by a factor of almost 2 when the thin-walled footing is used instead of a simple footing. The bearing capacities of the thin-walled footing in loose and dense sands predicted using finite-element analyses were different to the laboratory observations by 10%.