FE prediction of bearing capacity over reinforced soil.

Abstract

This paper presents the numerical simulation using an elastoplastic analysis of the bearing capacity of shallow foundations. The problem involves axisymmetric conditions on reinforced soil using finite element method (FEM). The foundation soil is modeled as a nonassociative elastoplastic Mohr-Coulomb material. The reinforcement is modeled as a linear elastic material. The ultimate bearing capacity obtained in this study is compared to solutions obtained using limit equilibrium and limit analysis. A parametric study was conducted for different configurations of reinforcement for a special case of frictionless foundation soil. The numerical results show good agreement with analytical results indicating the suitability of the numerical model used in this study and implemented into the code ANLOG - Non-Linear Analysis of Geotechnical Problems.