BEARING CAPACITY OF STRIP FOOTING

BEARING CAPACITY OF STRIP FOOTING

This document describes an example that has been used to verify the bearing capacity of
strip footing in PLAXIS.
F
1m

cref

= 0.495
G = 100 c

=0

No tension cut-off

Figure 1 Problem geometry

Used version:

PLAXIS 2D - Version 2011

PLAXIS 3D - Version 2012

Input: Calculations are carried out for a rough and a smooth footing. The geometry of
the 2D models is shown in Figure 2. Because of symmetry, only half of the geometry is
modelled using 15-node elements. Note that for the smooth case, the x-direction of the
prescribed displacement is set to free whereas in the rough case the x-direction of the
prescribed displacement is set to fixed.

1m

2m

3m

Figure 2 Model geometry (PLAXIS 2D)

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The geometry of the 3D model is shown in Figure 3. The strip footing is defined as a
surface prescribed displacement. A soil cluster and a surface are defined underneath
and at the right of the strip footing respectively to enable local control of the mesh. A line
prescribed displacement fixed in the x and y directions is defined between (0; 0; 2) and
(0; 1; 2).
1m

0.5 m
2.5 m

1m

0.4 m

1.6 m

Figure 3 Model geometry (PLAXIS 3D)

Materials: The material properties are shown in Figure 1. The Mohr-Coulomb model is
used to model the behavior of the soil in order to be consistent with the conventional
foundation design (Potts & Zdravkovic (2001)). The cohesion at the soil surface, cref , is
taken 1 kN/m2 . In the Advanced settings, the cohesion gradient, cinc , is set equal to 2
kN/m2 /m, using a reference level, yref = 0 m (= top of layer). The stiffness at the top is
given by Eref = 299 kN/m2 and the increase of stiffness with depth is defined by Einc =
598 kN/m2 /m.
Meshing: In the 2D model the Medium option is selected for the Global coarseness.
The point at the left and at the right of the prescribed displacement are refined with a
Local element size factor of 0.5 and 0.05 respectively. The resulting finite element mesh
is shown in Figure 4.
In the 3D model the Coarse option is selected for the Global coarseness. The soil cluster
below the footing and the surface prescribed displacement representing the footing are
refined with a Local element size factor of 0.25. The surface at the right of the footing is
refined with a Local element size factor of 0.1. The resulting finite element mesh is
shown in Figure 5.
Calculations: In the Initial phase zero initial stresses are generated by using the K0
procedure with -Mweight equal to zero. The prescribed displacement is activated in a
separate phase. A vertical displacement of -0.1 is applied. In the case of the smooth
footing the horizontal prescribed displacement is set to Free. In the case of the rigid
footing the horizontal prescribed displacement is fixed. The calculation type is Plastic
analysis and a Tolerated error of 0.001 is defined. The Reset displacements to zero
option is selected and the Additional steps parameter is set to 500.

Validation & Verification | PLAXIS 2012

BEARING CAPACITY OF STRIP FOOTING

Figure 4 The finite element mesh(PLAXIS 2D)

Figure 5 The finite element mesh (PLAXIS 3D)

Output: In PLAXIS 2D model the calculated maximum average vertical stress under the
smooth footing is 7.831 kN/m2 , giving a bearing capacity of 15.662 kN/m. For the rough
footing this is 9.174 kN/m2 , giving a bearing capacity of 18.358 kN/m. The computed
load-displacement curves are shown in Figure 7.
In PLAXIS 3D model the calculated maximum average vertical stress under the smooth
footing is 8.095 kN/m2 , giving a bearing capacity of 16.19 kN/m. For the rough footing
this is 9.820 kN/m2 , giving a bearing capacity of 19.640 kN/m. The load-displacement
curves are shown in Figure 8.
Verification: The analytical solution derived by Davis & Booker (1973) for the mean
ultimate vertical stress beneath the footing, pmax , is:

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Figure 6 Deformed mesh (PLAXIS 2D - Smooth case)

10

Fz [ kN/m ]

Smooth case
Rough case

0.00

0.02

0.04

uz [m]

0.06

0.08

0.10

Figure 7 Comparison of results for smooth and rough footing (PLAXIS 2D)

pmax =



F
B cinc
= (2 + )cref +
4
B

where B is the footing width and is a factor that depends on the footing roughness and
the rate of increase of clay strength with depth. The appropriate values of in this case
are 1.27 for the smooth footing and 1.48 for the rough footing. The analytical solution
therefore gives average vertical stresses at collapse of 7.8 kN/m2 for the smooth footing
and 9.1 kN/m2 for the rough footing. The errors in the PLAXIS 2D solution are 0.40% and
0.81% respectively. The errors in the PLAXIS 3D solution are 3.64% and 7.91%
respectively.

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BEARING CAPACITY OF STRIP FOOTING

10

Fz [ kN/m ]

Smooth case
Rough case

0
0.00

0.02

0.06

0.04

0.08

0.10

uz [m]
Figure 8 Comparison of results for smooth and rough footing (PLAXIS 3D)

REFERENCES
[1] Davis, E.H., Booker, J.R. (1973). The effect of increasing strength with depth on the
bearing capacity of clays. Geotechnique, 23(4), 551563.
[2] Potts, D.M., Zdravkovic, L. (2001). Finite element analysis in geotechnical
engineering application. Thomas Telford, London.

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Validation & Verification | PLAXIS 2012