A New Approach for Non-Linear Load-Settlement Assessment of Shallow Foundations

A new approach to assess the load-settlement-bearing capacity behavior of shallow foundations is presented in this paper. The load—settlement method accounts for the non-linearity of soil stress-strain behavior where as the majority of the settlement calculation methods in the literature assume linear stress-strain relationship which results in the inaccuracy of settlement calculation. The basic inputs of this method include the footing's geometric data such as footing width (B), length (L) and depth (D), and supporting soils properties including shear strength parameters, the soil's unit weight above and below foundation level to a depth of (D+B) and the strain at 50% stress level. It employs the stress-strain relationship developed by the senior author and transforms it to a load-settlement behavior. This new method has been verified against load tests performed on concrete footings in Texas, USA and provided a good agreement with the actual loading tests.