Scale Effects of Shallow Foundation Bearing Capacity on Granular Material
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 133, Issue 10
Abstract
Scale effects of shallow foundation bearing capacity on granular materials were investigated to further evaluate the trend of decreasing bearing capacity factor, , with increasing footing width, , observed by other researchers. Model-scale square and circular footing tests ranging in width from 0.025 to were performed on two compacted sands at three relative densities. Results of the model-scale footing tests show that the bearing capacity factor, , is dependent on the absolute width of the footing for both square and circular footings. Although this phenomenon is well known, the current study used a large range of footing sizes tested on well-graded sands to show that the previously reported modifications to the bearing capacity factor, , using grain-size and reference footing width do not sufficiently account for the scale effect seen in the test results from this study. It also shows that behavior of most model-scale footing tests cannot be directly correlated to the behavior of full-scale tests because of differences in mean stresses experienced beneath footings of varying sizes. The relationship of the initial testing conditions (i.e., void ratio) of the sand beds and mean stress experienced beneath the footing (correlated to footing size) to the critical state line controls footing behavior and, therefore, model-scale tests must be performed at a lower density than a corresponding prototype footing in order to correctly predict behavior. Small footings were shown to have low mean stresses but high values, which indicates high operative friction angles and may be related to the curvature of the Mohr–Coulomb failure envelope.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
Atkinson, J. H., and Farrar, D. M. (1985). “Stress path tests to measure soil strength parameters for shallow landslips.” Proc., 11th Int. Conf. on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, San Francisco, 983–986.
Baker, R. (2004). “Nonlinear Mohr envelopes based on triaxial data.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 130(5), 498–506.
Been, K., and Jefferies, M. G. (1985). “A state parameter for sands.” Geotechnique, 35(1), 99–112.
Berry, D. S. (1935). “Stability of granular mixtures.” Proc., 38th Annual Meeting, Vol. 35, ASTM, Philadelphia, 491–507.
Bishop, A. W. (1966). “The strength of soils as engineering materials.” Geotechnique, 16(2), 91–130.
Bishop, A. W., Webb, D. L., and Lewin, P. I. (1965). “Undisturbed samples of London clay from the Ashford common shaft: Strength-effective normal stress relationship.” Geotechnique, 15(1), 1–31.
Bolton, M. D. (1986). “The strength and dilatancy of sands.” Geotechnique, 36(1), 65–78.
Bolton, M. D., and Lau, C. K. (1989). “Scale effects in the bearing capacity of granular soils.” Proc., 12th Int. Conf. on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Vol. 2, Rio de Janeiro, 895–898.
Cerato, A. B. (2005). “Scale effect of shallow foundation bearing capacity on granular materials.” Ph.D. dissertation, Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst, Mass.
Cerato, A. B., and Lutenegger, A. J. (2006). “Bearing capacity of square and circular footings on a finite layer of granular soil underlain by a rigid base.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 132(11), 1496–1501.
Charles, J. A., and Soares, M. M. (1984). “Stability of compacted rockfill slopes.” Geotechnique, 34(1), 61–70.
Colliat-Dangus, J. L., Desrues, J., and Foray, P. (1988). “Triaxial testing of granular soil under elevated cell pressure. Advanced triaxial testing of soil and rock.” ASTM STP 977, ASTM, Philadelphia, 290–310.
Day, R. W., and Axten, G. W. (1989). “Surficial stability of compacted clay slopes.” J. Geotech. Engrg., 115(4), 577–580.
De Beer, E. E. (1963). “The scale effect in the transposition of the results of deep-sounding tests on the ultimate bearing capacity of piles and caisson foundations.” Geotechnique, 13(1), 39–75.
De Beer, E. E. (1965). “The scale effect on the phenomenon of progressive rupture in cohesionless soils.” Proc., 6th Int. Conf. on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Vol. 2(3–6), Montreal, Canada, 13–17.
DeJaeger, J. (1994). “Influence of grain size and shape on the dry sand shear behaviour.” Proc., 13th Int. Conf. on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Vol. 1, New Delhi, India, 13–16.
Dewaiker, D. M., and Mohapatro, B. G. (2003). “Computation of bearing capacity factor —Terzaghi’s mechanism.” Int. J. Geomech., 3(1), 123–128.
Drury, P. A. (1999). “Bearing capacity of surface footings on a layer of cohesionless soil overlying a rough right base.” MS thesis, Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst, Mass.
Fellenius, B. H., and Altaee, A. (1994). “Stress and settlement of footings in sand. Vertical and horizontal deformations of foundations and embankments.” GSP #40, Vol. 2, College Station, Tex., 1760–1773.
Golder, H. Q. (1941). “The ultimate bearing pressure of rectangular footings.” J. Inst. Civil Eng., 17, 161–174.
Graham, J., and Pollock, D. J. (1972). “Scale-dependent plasticity analysis for sand.” Civ. Eng. Public Works Rev., 67(788), 245–251.
Habib, P. A. (1974). “Scale effect for shallow footings on dense sand.” J. Geotech. Engrg. Div., 100(1), 95–99.
Hettler, A., and Gudehus, G. (1988). “Influence of the foundation width on the bearing capacity factor.” Soils Found., 28(4), 81–92.
Herle, I., and Tejchman, J. (1997). “Effect of grain size and pressure level on bearing capacity of footings on sand.” IS-Nagoya’97: Deformation and progressive failure in geomechanics, A. Asaoka, T. Adachi, and F. Oka, eds., Pergamon, Oxford, 781–786.
Ingra, T. S., and Baecher, G. B. (1982). “Uncertainty in bearing capacity of sands.” J. Geotech. Engrg., 109(7), 899–914.
Kimura, T., Kusakabe, O., and Saitoh, K. (1985). “Geotechnical model tests of bearing capacity problems in a centrifuge.” Geotechnique, 35(1), 97–104.
Kobayashi, Y. (2003). “Ultimate bearing capacity of shallow foundations and contained yielded zone.” Deformation characteristics of geomaterials, H. Di Benedetto et al., eds., Swets and Zeitlinger, Lisse, 817–824.
Kusakabe, O. (1995). “Chapter 6: Foundations.” Geotechnical centrifuge technology, R. N. Taylor, ed., Blackie Academic & Professional, London, 118–167.
Kusakabe, O., Yamaguchi, H., and Morikage, A. (1991). “Experiment and analysis on the scale effect of for circular and rectangular footings.” Centrifuge 1991, ISSMFE and ASCE, Boulder, Colo., l79–186.
Kutter, B. L., Abghari, A., and Cheney, J. A. (1988). “Strength parameters for bearing capacity of sand.” J. Geotech. Engrg., 114(4), 491–498.
Lee, K. L., and Seed, H. B. (1967). “Drained strength characteristics of sands.” J. Soil Mech. and Found. Div., 93(SM6), 117–141.
Maksimovic, M. (1989). “Nonlinear failure envelope for soils.” J. Geotech. Engrg., 115(4), 581–586.
McClusky, M. A. (1996). “Bearing capacity of shallow foundations on granular soil using in situ tests.” MS thesis, Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst, Mass.
Meyerhof, G. G. (1948). “An investigation of the bearing capacity of shallow footings on dry sand.” Proc., 2nd Int. Conf. on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, Vol. 1, 237–243.
Mitchell, J. W. (2000). “Bearing capacity of small scale circular footings on shallow layers of cohesionless granular sand overlying a rigid base.” Independent Study, Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst, Mass.
Ovesen, N. K. (1975). “Centrifugal testing applied to bearing capacity problems of footings on sand.” Geotechnique, 25(2), 394–401.
Penman, A. (1953). “Shear characteristics of saturated silt measured in triaxial compression.” Geotechnique, 15(1), 79–93.
Ponce, V. M., and Bell, J. M. (1971). “Shear strength of sand at extremely low pressures.” J. Geotech. Engrg. Div., 97(4), 625–638.
Prandtl, L. (1921). “Uber Die Eindringungsfestigkeit (Harte) Plastischer Baustoffe Und Die Festigkeit Von Schneiden.” Z. Angew. Math. Mech., 1(1), 15–20.
Shiraishi, S. (1990). “Variation in bearing capacity factors of dense sand assessed by model loading tests.” Soils Found., 30(1), 17–26.
Siddiquee, M. S. A. (1991). “FEM analysis of settlement and bearing capacity of footing on sand.” ME thesis, Univ. of Tokyo, Tokyo.
Tatsuoka, F., Okahara, M., Tanaka, T., Tani, K., Morimoto, T., and Siddiquee, M. S. A. (1991). “Progressive failure and particle size effect in bearing capacity of a footing on sand.” Geotech. Spec. Publ., No. 27, 2, 788–802.
Tatsuoka, F., Siddiquee, M. S. A., and Tanaka, T. (1994). “Link among design, model tests, theories and sand properties in bearing capacity of footing on sand.” 13th Int. Conf. on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering (ICSMFE), New Delhi, India, Vol. 1, 87–88.
Terzaghi, K. (1943). Theoretical soil mechanics, Wiley, New York.
Terzaghi, K., Peck, R. B., and Mesri, G. (1996). Soil mechanics in engineering practice, Wiley, New York.
Ueno, K. (2001). “Methods for preparation of sand samples.” Centrifuge 98, ISSMFE, Tokyo, Japan, Vol. 2, 1047–1055.
Ueno, K., Miura, K., and Maeda, Y. (1998). “Prediction of ultimate bearing capacity of surface rooting with regard to size effects.” SoilsFound., 38(3), 165–178.
Vesić, A. S. (1973). “Analysis of ultimate loads of shallow foundations.” J. Soil Mech. and Found. Div., 99(1), 45–73.
Vesić, A. S., and Barksdale, R. D. (1963). “Discussion: Shear strength at high pressures.” Laboratory shear testing of soils, ASTM STP 361, ASTM, Philadelphia, 301–305.
Yamaguchi, H., Kimura, T., and Fujii, N. (1977). “On the scale effect of footings in dense sand.” Proc., 9th Int. Conf. on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering. Tokyo, Japan, Vol. 1, 795–798.
Zhu, F., Clark, J. I., and Phillips, R. (2001). “Scale effect of strip and circular footings resting on dense sand.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 127(7), 613–621.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2007 ASCE.
History
Received: Feb 24, 2006
Accepted: Apr 14, 2007
Published online: Oct 1, 2007
Published in print: Oct 2007
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.