Experimental Study on the Behavior of Skirted Foundation Rested on Soft Clayey Soils

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the behavior of skirted strip model footing founded on beds of soft clays and to evaluate the improvement values in bearing capacity. A series of laboratory model tests were conducted to determine the optimal vertical capacities of skirted foundation within different skirted embedded depth (D/B) ratio (embedded depth to footing width) ranged between (0.0-2.5). The results of model tests based on the load-settlement behavior, revealed that the insertion of skirt structure into the soft clayey soil has a clear increasing the magnitude of bearing capacity with increasing (D/B) ratio according to the lateral confining pressure as compared with the soft clay state without lateral confining (D/B = 0). As a principal part in this study is to knowledge the adequate skirts embedment depth for improvement the ultimate bearing capacity value. It is found that the appropriate skirted embedded depth as the skirt depth to foundation width of 0.5 (D/B=0.5).

Keywords

• skirted foundation
• strip footing
• bearing capacity