Experimental investigation on the bearing capacity of skirted foundations on submerged gypseous soil

• Published in: Marine georesources & geotechnology Vol. 38; no. 10; pp. 1151 - 1162
• Main Authors: Mahmood, Mahmood R., Fattah, Mohammed Y., Khalaf, Ahmed
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia Taylor & Francis 25.11.2020; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Bearing capacity; bearing capacity; improvement; collapse; Foundations; Gypseous soil; Gypsum; Length; Mathematical models; Model testing; Relative density; skirted foundation; Skirts; Soil; Soil density; Soils; Wetting
• ISSN: 1064-119X; 1521-0618
• DOI: 10.1080/1064119X.2019.1656311

This paper presents experimental results to determine the optimum length to diameter ratio of skirted foundation to get maximum bearing-capacity on soaked collapsible gypseous soil Gypseous soil was selected from Tikrit city north of Baghdad, with gypsum content 54%. Model tests were carried out to obtain load-settlement curves for circular skirted footing models with skirt ratio (length to diameter ratio L/D) of 0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.7, 1, 1.5, 2, and 3 on soil of dry relative density 55%. The study proved the ability of using skirts to protect the collapsible gypseous soil below foundations when subjected to wetting. It was concluded that the skirted footing increases the bearing capacity with decrease in the settlement and improves the load-settlement behavior of the footing. The bearing capacity of skirted footing improves in the range of 1.92-2.27 and this is dependent on the surface and geometrical properties of the skirt, and characteristics of gypseous soil. In general, the greater L/D ratio, lines of failure below the footing will intersect with the existence of skirted and its effect does not arrive to the surface of soil, and cause confinement to the soil inside the skirt and this led to increase of bearing capacity.