Application of FLAC in bearing capacity analyses of layered clays

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dc.contributor.authorBhardwaj, Vivek
dc.contributor.examiningcommitteeAlfaro, Marolo (Civil Engineering) Blatz, James (Civil Engineering) Sri Ranjan, R. (Biosystems Engineering)en
dc.contributor.supervisorStimpson, Brian (Civil Engineering)en
dc.date.accessioned2007-01-08T15:50:42Z
dc.date.available2007-01-08T15:50:42Z
dc.date.issued2007-01-08T15:50:42Z
dc.degree.disciplineCivil Engineeringen_US
dc.degree.levelMaster of Science (M.Sc.)en_US
dc.description.abstractUnderstanding the bearing response of the footings on layered soils has always been a challenge for researchers. Due to the limitations of analytical and empirical solutions it had been difficult to understand the true bearing behavior. Some researchers have tried solving this problem by numerical analysis and have found some success. In this study the numerical analysis approach has been applied using a commercial tool FLAC (Fast Lagrangian Analysis of Continua) to study the bearing response of surface footings on layered clays. First, small deformation analyses were taken up to study the undrained bearing response of strip and circular footings resting on a horizontally layered strong over a soft clay foundation, and then over soft over strong clay foundation. In the end application of large strain mode of FLAC was explored to investigate the large deformation behavior of the strip footing resting on the surface of a strong over soft clay foundation. All models were run by applying velocity loading and a elastic-perfectly plastic Tresca yield criterion has been used. The results are compared with published Finite Element Method (FEM) results, and with analytical, empirical and semi-empirical solutions. It was found that bearing capacity results from the present small-strain FLAC analyses agree well with the FEM results. However, these results in most of the cases tend to differ (as much as 49% for certain layered clay foundations) from those predicted with analytical, empirical and semi-empirical solutions, mainly due to the assumptions made in these solutions. Since no such assumptions are made in the present FLAC analyses, the results and the methodology of this thesis can be applied to predict the bearing capacity of the practical problems. Application of the large-strain mode of FLAC to study the large deformation of shallow foundations has pointed out a limitation of FLAC in completing such analyses. However, it is observed from the early trends of these analyses that whereas the small deformation analysis may under estimate the ultimate bearing capacity for certain cases of layered foundations where the upper clay is moderately stiffer than the lower clay layer, it might also over predict the ultimate bearing capacity for other cases when the upper clay is very stiff in comparison to the lower clay layer.en
dc.description.noteFebruary 2007en
dc.format.extent31323471 bytes
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1993/302
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.rightsopen accessen_US
dc.subjectFLACen
dc.subjectbearingen
dc.subjectcapacityen
dc.subjectlayereden
dc.subjectclaysen
dc.subjectstripen
dc.subjectcircularen
dc.subjectfootingen
dc.subjectrigiden
dc.subjectsmoothen
dc.subjectstrongen
dc.subjectstiffen
dc.subjectsoften
dc.subjectlargeen
dc.subjectdeformationen
dc.subjectinfluenceen
dc.subjectshearen
dc.subjectstrengthen
dc.subjectfailureen
dc.subjectmodesen
dc.subjectgeneralen
dc.subjectlocalen
dc.subjectpunchingen
dc.subjectsmallen
dc.titleApplication of FLAC in bearing capacity analyses of layered claysen
dc.typemaster thesisen_US
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