Effect of partial saturation on the stability of shallow foundations above the water table

Balzano, Brunella ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7868-8835, Amabile, Alessia, Urciuoli, Gianfranco and Tarantino, Alessandro 2012. Effect of partial saturation on the stability of shallow foundations above the water table. Mancuso, Claudio, Jommi, Cristina and D'Onza, Francesca, eds. Unsaturated Soils: Research and Applications, Vol. 2. Springer, pp. 247-253. (10.1007/978-3-642-31343-1_31)

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Abstract

Granular ‘cohesionless’ soils above the water table are partially saturated but are commonly assumed to be dry in geotechnical practice. Accordingly, ‘drained’ shear strength is calculated by replacing the ‘saturated’ effective stress with the total stress. The ‘dry soil’ assumption neglects the effect t of suction on shear strength and, as a result, geo-structures are over designed. To investigate the implications of this assumption, this paper presents an approach to calculate the bearing capacity of shallow foundations above the water table taking into account the effects of partial saturation. This approach is based on the upper bound theorem of plasticity. The bearing capacity of a strip foundation in granular soils is calculated and the solution obtained by taking into account the effects of partial saturation is compared with the solution obtained from the classical ‘dry’ approach.

Item Type:	Book Section
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Engineering
Publisher:	Springer
ISBN:	9783642313424
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	6 December 2018
Last Modified:	24 Oct 2022 08:20
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/117456

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