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Upper Bound Analysis of the Effect of Footing Roughness on Nγ and the Failure Mechanism of a Strip Footing

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Abstract

The effect of footing roughness on the bearing capacity factor Nγ and failure mechanism of a strip footing on pure sand were examined using an upper bound finite element method with rigid translatory moving elements (UBFEM-RTME). The analysis was performed with different combination values of the footing–sand friction angle (δ) and the sand friction angle (ϕ). The magnitude of Nγ is found to continuously increase with increasing δ/ϕ and ϕ. The obtained failure mechanism primarily consists of a completely curved trapped wedge and a mesh-like failure zone, with the exception of the case where δ/ϕ = 0. The sizes of the failure zone and the curved wedge, briefly by four introduced geometric parameters, increase with an increase in δ/ϕ and ϕ. The values of δ/ϕ exhibit a particularly pronounced effect on Nγ and associated failure mechanism, especially for high values of ϕ with small values of δ/ϕ. The present results match quite well with those results available in the literature.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their gratitude to the reviewers for their valuable comments on this paper. This study was sponsored by the Chinese National Natural Science Foundation (No. 51208522, 51478477). The authors are grateful to these institutions for their support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Civil Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, 410075, China

    Feng Yang, Xiangcou Zheng, Lianheng Zhao & Yigao Tan

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  1. Feng Yang
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  2. Xiangcou Zheng
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  3. Lianheng Zhao
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  4. Yigao Tan
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Correspondence to Lianheng Zhao.

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Yang, F., Zheng, X., Zhao, L. et al. Upper Bound Analysis of the Effect of Footing Roughness on Nγ and the Failure Mechanism of a Strip Footing. Iran J Sci Technol Trans Civ Eng 43 (Suppl 1), 659–666 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40996-018-0179-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40996-018-0179-z

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