PERFORMANCE OF SKIRTED CIRCULAR SHALLOW FOOTINGS RESTING ON SANDY SOIL UNDER INCLINED LOADS

Abstract

Experimental tests were conducted to study the behavior of skirted foundations rested on dry medium sandy soil subjected to vertical and inclined loads. To achieve this goal, a small-scale physical model was designed and performed which contained an aluminum circular footing (100 mm) in diameter and (10 mm) in thickness and skirts with different heights, local medium poorly graded dry sand is placed in a steel soil container (2 mm) thick with internal dimensions (1000 mm x 1000 mm in cross section and 800 mm in height). The main objective of this study was to evaluate the response of skirt attached to the foundation at different skirt (L/D) ratios (0.0, 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5) and is subjected to point load at different angles of inclination (θ) (90 °, 80 °, 70 ° to 60 °) varying with the horizontal. In all tests, the relative density of sand was kept constant and equal to (60%). Four tests were conducted on a foundation without a skirt, for comparison reasons, and twelve tests were conducted on a skirt attached to foundation. The results showed that with decreasing the angle of inclination of load with the horizontal the load carrying capacity decreased due to increase the horizontal component of applied load which leads to increase the shear stresses under the foundation, however that effect decreases with increase the skirt height.