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Geotechnical Engineering
Granular layers are often placed over weaker clay soils to improve the bearing capacity of working platforms and
spread foundations. Their design requires the calculation of a two-layer bearing capacity. The commonly used existing
calculation models are quite empirical with imprecise input parameters and can err on the non-conservative side in
some situations. Other proposed methods tend to involve multiple design charts and are suited only to either strip
or circular foundations. In this paper a new and highly practical design method is proposed whose input parameters
are derived directly from the shear strengths of the two layers without the need for empirical-based charts.
The output can be obtained either from a single chart or a few equations that are straightforward to implement
into a spreadsheet. It can be applied quite generally to both surface and shallow embedded foundations, circular and
rectangular and with dry or saturated granular layers, and also to working platform design for tracked plant.
The method was validated using three independent numerical studies and centrifuge testing. The results showed
that, although errors can increase for foundation shapes towards square or circular and with increasing overburden,
the errors are smaller than those of the commonly used existing methods and are also conservative.
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Geotechnical Engineering The bearing capacity of a granular
Volume 173 Issue 1 layer on clay
Lees
D Overburden
stress, γ D
Granular layer B
Punching shear
α
H
Typical pre-failure
Self-weight vertical
load spread
effective stress, p'0,
including overburden
Bearing capacity
failure
Clay
The angle α of load spread to the vertical is assumed the same strengths of the granular layer and the subgrade. Shiau et al.
as the angle of straight shear planes in the granular layer. (2003) found that the Brinch Hansen (1970) bearing capacity
Many values for α have been proposed, ranging from 18·4° factor (Nγ) provided reasonably accurate predictions of qg.
(i.e. a 3:1 load-spread) (Young and Focht, 1981) to 45°
(Myslivec and Kysela, 1978), equal to ϕ′ (Baglioni et al., 1982) Burd and Frydman (1997) performed an extensive parametric
or dependent on the ratio of the bearing capacities of the sand study of dimensionless groups using finite-difference and finite-
and clay alone (Jacobsen et al., 1977), as summarised by element analysis (FEA) of surface strip footings on granular
Craig and Chua (1990). Brocklehurst (1993) and Ballard et al. layers with different ϕ′ values overlying clay subgrades of
(2011) showed that α is also influenced by the undrained different su/p0′ values with different H/B ratios. They also ident-
shear strength of the clay (su). The term ‘load spread angle’ ified a critical depth that matched well with that obtained
is misleading because some designers have attempted to using Nγ for qg.
measure the load spread in tests with earth pressure cells at
relatively small strains and then adopted the value in bearing Michalowski and Shi (1995), Kumar and Chakraborty (2015)
capacity design even though the eventual punching shear angle and Burd and Frydman (1997) all provided design charts as
may be significantly smaller (Madhav and Sharma, 1991), as outcomes from their work but each required multiple charts
illustrated in Figure 1, and the load spread also changes as to cover the typical range of cases, making them difficult to
strains increase towards failure. The appropriate α angle could use. In addition, they are suitable for either strip or circular
be neither the actual load spread nor punching shear angle footings, and sometimes surface footings, only. Consequently,
but more an expression of the load transfer efficiency of the they do not see common use in design.
granular layer that depends on the shear strengths of the soils.
This paper combines these previous investigations with pub-
Limit analysis has also been applied to the problem, including lished centrifuge test data to propose a new, simple method to
upper bound analysis (Michalowski and Shi, 1995) and finite- characterise the bearing capacity performance of granular layers
element limit analysis (FELA) for upper and lower bounds of on clay soils that can be used for vertically loaded surface and
strip footings by Shiau et al. (2003) and lower bound analysis shallow foundations of both circular and rectangular shapes.
of circular footings by Kumar and Chakraborty (2015). In the
first two studies a critical depth of the granular layer was 2. Physical study
identified above which the failure mechanism occurred entirely Okamura et al. (1997, 1998) performed 60 centrifuge model tests
within the granular layer and bearing capacity became indepe- on circular and strip footings loaded to failure on Toyoura fine to
ndent of clay strength. This is the H value at which qu (the net medium sand overlying clay subgrades of different strengths. The
bearing capacity of a granular layer on clay) equals qg (the strip footings applied surface load but the circular footing was
bearing capacity of a granular layer of infinite depth) and used to apply both surface and embedded loadings; the H/B ratio
depends on a complex interaction between the granular layer was also varied. In the centrifuge tests, su increased with depth,
depth and density, foundation geometry and the shear which needs to be converted into an equivalent uniform value.
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Geotechnical Engineering The bearing capacity of a granular
Volume 173 Issue 1 layer on clay
Lees
qu/qs
granular layer and even more so as H/B increased due to
3
the proportionally higher influence of the granular layer on
the overall bearing capacity, eventually to the point where the
bearing capacity mechanism occurred entirely within the 2
granular layer. Furthermore, the limit on shear stresses
generated at the interface between the layers of differing stiff- 1
ness was found to be governed by su at the surface of the clay 0 1 2 3
rather than at depth. k values ranged between about 0·5 and H/B
4 kPa/m in the centrifuge models and corrections in line with (a)
those determined by Shiau et al. (2003) were applied to the 4
surface su value. Typically, a factor of only about 1·05 was su: kPa
applied to su0 to obtain the equivalent uniform value. In design, 10
it would appear conservative and not particularly inaccurate 26
3 T
to adopt the surface su value in design except in cases with
51
(qu/qs)½
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Geotechnical Engineering The bearing capacity of a granular
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Lees
Hansen (1970) equation for Nγ, which was found to give overburden stress. The FELA study carried out by Kumar and
reasonably accurate predictions of critical depth in the studies Chakraborty (2015) was on circular footings in axisymmetry
carried out by Shiau et al. (2003) and Burd and Frydman and included variable overburden stress. All of them assumed a
(1997). The lines shown in Figure 2 would eventually reach the rigid footing and a rough interface with the granular layer.
critical depth as H/B increases, above which failure entirely
within the granular layer rather than punching shear failure Outputs from the three studies are compared with each other
becomes critical. The critical depth itself can be determined as and the Okamura et al. (1997) centrifuge data in Figure 4 for
the H value when qu = qg. a granular layer with ϕ′ = 40°, which was included in all three
numerical studies. The cases where H exceeded the critical
The variation of T with su in the centrifuge tests is plotted depth are omitted in Figure 4. The Burd and Frydman (1997)
(for individual tests rather than obtaining a single T value for output is denoted as FEA and the Shiau et al. (2003) and
each su value by linear regression from the data in Figure 2) Kumar and Chakraborty (2015) studies as FELA for strip and
in Figure 3, with su expressed as the dimensionless ratio su/p0′ circular footing cases, respectively. The centrifuge data is
where p0′ is the vertical effective stress at the base of the denoted C. The peak ϕ′ values were determined according to
granular layer with zero foundation load. The granular layers Equation 4 to take account of the stress dependency of ϕ′
were submerged with water in the centrifuge models so the use (where Q is a constant taken as 10 for silica sands) and ranged
of effective stress is an important distinction while the use of between the values shown in brackets in Figure 4. The FEA
total vertical stress was found to give less correlation between and FELA outputs for the strip footings with zero overburden
T and su. It is apparent that the circular footing data for all the (D/B = 0) in Figure 4(a) compare very well with each other and
different clay strengths, overburdens and H/B ratios plot close lie on the same curve drawn in Figure 4. With the addition
to the curve shown determined for a granular layer ϕ′ value of of overburden, the T value increased slightly, despite the nor-
40° later in this paper, except for those cases where H exceeded malisation of su with p0′ . The T values in the circular footing
the critical depth and failure was observed to occur entirely
within the granular layer. This figure shows more clearly the
5
dependency of the T value on su. The small number of data
points for the strip footing plot well above the curve, which is 4
likely due to the higher ϕ′ value in plane strain compared with
the triaxial compression conditions of the circular footing. 3 FEA D/B = 0 FELA D/B = 0 FELA D/B = 1
Indeed, in seven surface circular footing centrifuge tests on
2
T
1·5 2
T
T
1·0 1
0·5
0
0 2 4 6 8
0
0 1 2 3 4 –1 su /p'0
su /p'0 Failure entirely (b)
within granular layer
Figure 4. Numerical and physical study of T values compared for
Figure 3. Plot of T against normalised clay shear strength from ϕ0 = 40° (centrifuge ϕ0 = 34–41°): (a) strip footing; (b) circular
centrifuge testing reported by Okamura et al. (1997) footing
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Geotechnical Engineering The bearing capacity of a granular
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case (Figure 4(b)) are slightly higher than the same curve well. However, the outputs for the square footing cases (B/L = 1)
drawn and, in a similar fashion to the strip footing, increase fit the curves less well and were more variable, suggesting some
further with the addition of overburden stress. The results also dependency on other variables. However, for the intended practi-
compare well with the centrifuge data, which generally show cal design use, the curves provide an appropriate lower bound.
slightly lower ϕ′ values. According to Lee et al. (2013) The centrifuge data are again plotted on the graphs to show
that the strip footing values compare well with the numerical
4: ϕ0 ¼ ϕcv
0
þ 265½ID ðQ ln qu Þ 1 studies and the peak ϕ′ values were determined using Equation
4 multiplied by 1·2 to take approximate account of the plane
strain conditions. Additional centrifuge data (shown by the
Burd and Frydman (1997), Shiau et al. (2003) and Kumar and open circle symbols) are added to Figure 5(b). These data were
Chakraborty (2015) also considered other ϕ′ values for the gran- taken from the work of Lee et al. (2013) who performed circular
ular layer and the outputs from these (all with zero overburden) footing penetration tests on a fine sand layer overlying clay of su
are plotted for the strip (B/L= 0) and square (B/L= 1) footing around 17 kPa in a drum centrifuge.
cases in Figures 5(a) and 5(b), respectively. The square footing
T values were calculated using the B value giving the same The curves were plotted according to the power-law expression
foundation area as the circular footing simulated in the FELA. shown in Equation 5 and linear relationships between A and B
This resulted in a slightly lower T value (by a factor of √(π/4)) and ϕ′ were determined as shown in Equations 6 and 7 (with
for the square footing compared with the equivalent area circu- ϕ′ in radians) to fit the output data.
lar footing. The numbers shown in the legend of Figure 5
A
denote the ϕ′ value in degrees. In addition to the ϕ′ = 40° curve su
5: T ¼ 14 þB
shown in Figure 4, further curves are shown for ϕ′ = 45, 35 and p00
30°. It can be seen that these curves fit the strip footing data
1·5
T
1·0 The curves plotted in Figure 5 and defined in Equations 5–7 can
φ' be used to determine T values which, in turn, using Equations 2
0·5
45° and 3, can be used to determine the bearing capacity of a granu-
0 40°
35° lar layer overlying clay in the design of foundations and working
–0·5 30° platforms. This is demonstrated by examples in Section 5. For
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
B/L ratios between 1 and 0, the bearing capacity can be interp-
su /p'0
olated linearly, as verified by Lees (2017) in a study of different
(b) B/L ratios using three-dimensional FEA.
Figure 5. Variation of T with su and ϕ0 : (a) strip footing;
(b) square footing Key advantages of this approach are the simple derivation of
the bearing capacity directly from the shear strength of the
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Geotechnical Engineering The bearing capacity of a granular
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individual soil layers and the straightforward visualisation of shear coefficient Kptan δ was calculated according to Meyerhof
the contribution of the individual strengths to overall bearing (1974), taking δ as 0·67ϕ′. The T values obtained agree reason-
capacity, as in Figure 5 for example. The relationships also ably well with the new curves but with some notable excep-
appear to be valid, or else err on the conservative side, for tions. The Meyerhof (1974) method appears to overpredict the
foundations with overburden pressure, for all shape ratios and bearing capacity for strip footings with ϕ′ = 45° and low su/p0′ ,
when the granular layer becomes saturated. which was addressed somewhat with the empirical factors of
Hanna and Meyerhof (1980) but not in a dimensionless way.
T values become very sensitive to changes in su/p0′ at low su/p0′ , There is also a large difference between the T values of strip
so sensitivity analysis would be particularly recommended in and circular footings, perhaps due to the constant shape factor
such cases and the design values of clay strength selected care- of 2 that was applied to obtain the circular footing bearing
fully. The uncertainty in such cases is increased by the difficulty capacity. Furthermore, due to the assumption of a vertical
of obtaining reliable su values in soft clays and the susceptibility punching shear plane, the T values are constrained to be
of su to change due to variations in environmental conditions. positive and approach zero for all ϕ′ values as su/p0′ increases,
although the numerical modelling discussed in this paper as
4. Comparison with existing methods well as the DLO studies of Ballard et al. (2011) show that
The Meyerhof (1974) method is recommended for routine negative T values can be obtained for cases with relatively high
working platform design in BRE (2004). The T values su/p0′ but H below the critical depth. As shown in Figure 6(b)
calculated from the Meyerhof (1974) method for a range of su and noted by Michalowski and Shi (1995), with the addition
and H/B values with ϕ′ values of 35, 40 and 45° for strip and of overburden stress, the Meyerhof (1974) and Hanna
circular footings are plotted in comparison with the newly and Meyerhof (1980) methods can significantly overpredict
derived curves in Figures 6(a) and 6(b) for an overburden the bearing capacity, particularly at high ϕ′ values. This is
stress (γD) of zero and 20 kPa, respectively. The punching due to the assumption that strength interaction parameters are
uninfluenced by the overburden stress; however, Okamura
5 et al. (1998) back-analysed their centrifuge test results to
demonstrate that the punching shear coefficient Ks is influ-
4 45° strip 40° strip 35° strip
enced by overburden stress.
45° circ. 40° circ. 35° circ.
3
A similar comparison with the load spread method is shown
2 for strip footings with assumed load spread angles of 26·6°
T
5
5
45° strip 40° strip 35° strip
4
45° circ. 40° circ. 35° circ. 2:1
4
3 1:1
3
2
T
2
T
1 φ'
45° 1 φ'
0 40°
35° 45°
0 40°
–1 35°
0 2 4 6 8 10
–1
su /p'0 0 2 4 6 8 10
(b) su /p'0
Figure 6. Comparison of the Meyerhof (1974) method and new Figure 7. Comparison of load spread method and new design
design curves: (a) surface footing; (b) 20 kPa overburden stress curves
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Geotechnical Engineering The bearing capacity of a granular
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Input data: B = 1·2 m, L = 2·0 m, su = 25 kPa, ϕ0 = 45°, γsat = 20 kN/m3, H = 0·60 m, D = 1·0 m, groundwater level at ground surface
γD = 20 1·0 = 20 kPa
p00 = (1·6 20)−(1·6 10) = 16 kPa
su/p00 = 25/16·0 = 1·56
T = 1·02 (from Figure 5(a) or Equations 5–7)
B/L = 1: B/L = 0:
qs = scNcsu = 1·2 5·14 25 = 154·2 kPa qs = scNcsu = 1·0 5·14 25 = 128·5 kPa
Equation 3: qu/qs = [1 + T(H/B)]2 = [1 + 1·02(0·6/1·2)]2 = 2·28 Equation 2: qu/qs = [1 + T(H/B)] = [1 + 1·02(0·6/1·2)] = 1·51
qu = 154·2 2·28 = 351·6 kPa qu = 128·5 1·51 = 194·0 kPa
B/L = 1·2/2·0 = 0·6
Interpolation between B/L = 1 and B/L = 0:
qu = 288·6 kPa
qg = γDNqsq + 0·5BγNγsγ = (20 135 1·12) + (0·5 1·2 10 241 0·76) = 3024 + 1099 = 4123 kPa
qu ≤ qg? Yes
qu taken as 288 kPa (Meyerhof (1974) method: 388 kPa)
Gross bearing capacity = 269 + 9·5 = 278 kPa
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Geotechnical Engineering The bearing capacity of a granular
Volume 173 Issue 1 layer on clay
Lees
methods. The Meyerhof (1974) and load spread methods can Lees AS (2017) Bearing capacity of a stabilised granular layer on clay
result in an unsafe overprediction of bearing capacity in some subgrade. In Bearing Capacity of Roads, Railways and Airfields
(Loizos A, Al-Qadi I and Scarpas T (eds)). Taylor & Francis,
cases.
London, UK, pp. 1135–1142.
Madhav M and Sharma J (1991) Bearing capacity of clay overlain by
Other observations made during this study can be summarised stiff soil. Journal of Geotechnical Engineering 117(12): 1941–1948.
as follows. Meyerhof GG (1974) Ultimate bearing capacity of footings on sand
layer overlying clay. Canadian Geotechnical Journal 11(2): 223–229.
Michalowski RL and Shi L (1995) Bearing capacity of footings over
& In cases where su increases with depth, it is conservative two-layer foundation soils. Journal of Geotechnical Engineering
and not particularly inaccurate to adopt the surface su 121(5): 421–428.
value in design except in cases with large foundation Myslivec A and Kysela Z (1978) The Bearing Capacity of Building
Foundations. Elsevier, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
widths and a rapid increase in su with depth when more
Okamura M, Takemura J and Kimura T (1997) Centrifuge model tests on
detailed study may prove economical. bearing capacity and deformation of sand layer overlying clay.
& A check on shear failure entirely within the granular layer Soils and Foundations 37(1): 73–88.
is needed and studies show the Brinch Hansen (1970) Okamura M, Takemura J and Kimura T (1998) Bearing capacity
equation for Nγ is the most appropriate. predictions of sand overlying clay based on limit equilibrium
methods. Soils and Foundations 38(1): 181–194.
& Shear strain levels at the onset of bearing capacity failure
Shiau JS, Lyamin AV and Sloan SW (2003) Bearing capacity of a sand
in weaker clay typically exceed peak failure values in dense layer on clay by finite element limit analysis. Canadian
granular layers, so post-peak granular layer strengths are Geotechnical Journal 40(5): 900–915.
generally more appropriate in design. Tani K and Craig WH (1995) Bearing capacity of circular foundations on
& For circular foundations, the T value should be multiplied soft clay of strength increasing with depth, Soils and Foundations
35(4): 21–35.
by 1·13.
Terzaghi K and Peck RB (1948) Soil Mechanics in Engineering Practice,
1st edn. Wiley, New York, NY, USA.
Yamaguchi H (1963) Practical formula of bearing value for two layered
REFERENCES ground. Proceedings of the 2nd Asian Regional Conference of
Baglioni VP, Chow GS and Endley SN (1982) Jack-up foundation stability Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Tokyo, Japan
in stratified soil profiles. Proceedings of the 14th Offshore (Kogakkai D (ed.)) Kenkyusha, Tokyo, Japan, pp. 99–105.
Technology Conference, Houston, TX, USA. Offshore Technology Young AG and Focht JA (1981) Sub-surface hazards affect mobile
Conference, Houston, TX, USA, pp. 363–383, https://doi.org/ jack-up rig operations. Sounding, McClelland Engineers 3(2): 4–9.
10.4043/4409-MS.
Ballard JC, Delvosal P, Yonatan P, Holeyman A and Kay S (2011)
Simplified VH equations for foundation punch-through
sand into clay. Frontiers in Offshore Geotechnics II (Gourvenec S
and White D (eds)). CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, USA,
pp. 655–660.
BRE (Building Research Establishment) (2004) Working Platforms for
Tracked Plant, BR 470. BRE, Watford, UK.
Brinch Hansen J (1970) A revised and extended formula for
bearing capacity. Bulletin of the Danish Geotechnical Institute
28: 5–11.
Brocklehurst CJ (1993) Finite Element Studies of Reinforced and
Unreinforced Two-Layer Soil Systems. DPhil thesis, University of
Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Burd HJ and Frydman S (1997) Bearing capacity of plane-strain
footings on layered soils. Canadian Geotechnical Journal 34(2):
241–253.
Craig WH and Chua K (1990) Deep penetration of spud-can foundations
on sand and clay. Géotechnique 40(4): 541–556, https://doi.org/ How can you contribute?
10.1680/geot.1990.40.4.541.
Hanna AM and Meyerhof GG (1980) Design charts for ultimate bearing To discuss this paper, please email up to 500 words to the
capacity of foundations on sand overlying soft clay. Canadian editor at journals@ice.org.uk. Your contribution will be
Geotechnical Journal 17(2): 300–303. forwarded to the author(s) for a reply and, if considered
Jacobsen M, Christensen KV and Sorensen CS (1977) Gennemlokning af appropriate by the editorial board, it will be published as
tynde sandlag. Svenska Vagoch Vatten Byggares Riksforbund,
Stockholm, Sweden, pp. 23–25 (in Danish).
discussion in a future issue of the journal.
Kumar J and Chakraborty M (2015) Bearing capacity of a circular Proceedings journals rely entirely on contributions from the
foundation on layered sand-clay media, Soils and Foundations civil engineering profession (and allied disciplines).
55(5): 1058–1068.
Information about how to submit your paper online
Lee KK, Cassidy MJ and Randolph MF (2013) Bearing capacity on sand
overlying clay soils: experimental and finite-element investigation is available at www.icevirtuallibrary.com/page/authors,
of potential punch-through failure. Géotechnique 63(15): where you will also find detailed author guidelines.
1271–1284, https://doi.org/10.1680/geot.12.P.175.
20
Punching shear coefficients for the design of working platforms
S.N. Salimi Eshkevari & A.J. Abbo
Australian Research Council Centre for Geotechnical Science and Engineering, School of Engineering,
University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, 2308, Australia.
ABSTRACT: Working platforms provide a safe working environment for the operation of tracked plant on
sites with soft clay subgrades. The ultimate bearing capacity of such platforms is determined considering a
layered soil model and assumes that collapse is governed by a punching shear mode of failure. The contribu-
tion of the platform to the bearing capacity is computed using a coefficient of punching shear which reflects
the mobilised shearing resistance within the granular fill from which the platform is constructed. This paper
investigates the punching shear coefficients using in computing the bearing capacity of layered soils. Finite
Element Limit Analysis is used to obtain upper and lower bounds on the ultimate bearing capacity of layered
soil system. Punching shear coefficients are obtained by back-calculating the ultimate bearing capacity of lay-
ered soils following the punching shear model by Meyerhof. The presented coefficients predict the actual ul-
timate bearing capacity of working platforms for a wide range of design conditions with 5 percent error or
less.
1 INTRODUCTION layer spreads the load and failure in the clay is that
Crawler cranes and other tracked plant are more fre- associated with a wider footing.
quently being utilized in heavy engineering con- The contribution of the sand layer to the bearing
struction and in the development of infrastructure. capacity of the footing is obtained through the re-
Sites with poor subgrades are often incapable of sistance of sand to shearing. Assuming vertical shear
supporting the loads associated with such equipment planes, Meyerhof (1974) incorporated shear re-
and temporary working platforms are required to sistance considering passive earth pressure acting on
provide a safe working environment. The size and the failure planes and the average mobilised angle of
capacity of construction equipment has also grown shearing resistance (δ) along the planes. The mobi-
with advances in technology further emphasizing the lised angle of shearing resistance is a function of rel-
need for reliable working platforms to not only pro- ative strength of the two layers and the peak internal
tect expensive equipment but to mitigate risk associ- friction angle of granular materials (Hanna & Mey-
ated often with critical construction activities. erhof 1980). However, this dependency has been ig-
A good practice guide to the design, construction nored by BR-470 as it adopts a mobilised friction
and maintenance of ground-supported working plat- angle of δ=2/3ϕ following Meyerhof (1974).
form BR-470 has been published by Building Re- This paper presents the results of a parametric
search Establishment (2004) to improve safety on study investigating the punching shear coefficient.
building sites. Although the guide has been success- The parametric study was performed using Finite
ful in providing a reliable and safe method for plat- Element Limit Analysis and considered a range of
form design, some users have reported unnecessarily parameters encountered in the design of working
large platform thicknesses (Corke & Gannon 2010). platforms. The presented coefficients can be used to
In BR-470, the ultimate capacity of the platform predict the actual ultimate bearing capacity of work-
is based upon the punching shear mechanism pro- ing platforms with 5 percent error or less.
posed by Meyerhof (1974) for the bearing capacity
of a sand layer overlying a weak clay subgrade. This
failure mechanism assumes the footing punches ver- 2 BACKGROUND
tically down through the sand to impose a bearing
capacity failure within the clay for a footing of the
2.1 Punching shear failure in layered soils
same width. This is in contrast to the load spread
model of (Terzaghi & Peck 1948) in which the sand Meyerhof (1974) proposed a method to estimate
the ultimate bearing capacity of footings resting on a tion angle of soil (δ) on assumed failure plains. Thus
thin layer of dense sand overlying soft or very soft the relative strength of the two layers qc/qs, average
clay. From the results of experimental tests on lay- confining stress in the sand layer and the peak fric-
ered soils, Meyerhof observed that where the thick- tion angle of the top layer which influence δ can sig-
ness of dense sand is comparable to the width of nificantly affect Ks. Other parameters such as un-
footing, sand mass with an approximately pyramidal drained shear strength of the cohesive layer (cu), the
shape is punched into the soft clay as it is shown in footing width (B), and the unit weight of sand (γ)
Figure1. In the case of general shear failure, the fric- which contribute to the term qc/qs together with the
tion angle of the sand (φ) and the undrained cohe- thickness of the top layer, (H) that controls the aver-
sion of the clay (cu) are mobilised. Meyerhof ap- age confining stress in the sand layer, are important
proximated the actual curved failure plains in the factors that affect Ks.
upper sand layer with a vertical plane through the B
footing edge. It was shown by Meyerhof that the to-
tal passive earth pressure (Pp) inclined at an average Qu
D
angle δ acting upwards on the vertical shear planes,
well approximate the forces on the actual failure sur-
face in the sand. Under this model, bearing capacity H
δ δ
of the clay is that of a footing of equal width and as Sand
Pp Pp
such, the ultimate bearing capacity of a strip footing
Clay
resting on the surface is given as Qc
γ H2
=
qu cu N c + K
p
tan δ (1)
B Figure 1. Failure mechanism of strong sand layer underlain by
soft clay after Meyerhof (1974).
where Nc is the bearing capacity factor equal to 5.14;
γ the unit weight of the sand; H the thickness of the
sand layer; B the footing width; Kp the coefficient of 2.2 BR-470 Bearing Capacity
passive earth pressure and δ is the average mobilised The punching shear model of Meyerhof (1974) is
friction angle on the assumed vertical failure plains. used as the basis for design in BR-470 with the ulti-
As a matter of convenience, Meyerhof replaced the mate bearing capacity calculated according to the
term (Kp tanδ) by an equivalent term of (Ks tanϕ) in equation 1. Design values for the term Kp tan δ are
which Ks is known as the Coefficient of Punching specified for given friction angles of platform mate-
Shear. rial for which the average mobilised friction angle
K tan δ = K s tan ϕ (δ) has been assumed to equal 2φ/3 as recommended
p (2)
by Meyerhof. The average value of δ was shown to
Hence, the bearing capacity of the layered system is be between φ/2 to 3φ/4 (Meyerhof 1974). Table 1
given by lists design values of Kp tan δ specified in BR-470
(refer Table A2 and Figure A4).
γ H2 While BR-470 adopted the punching shear model
=
qu cu N c + K s tan ϕ (3) for bearing capacity, it did not adopt Meyerhof’s co-
B efficient of punching shear in computing the bearing
Hanna & Meyerhof (1980) calculated values of capacity equation, presumably to simplify the design
Ks using limit equilibrium technique for a range of calculations. Table 1 lists equivalent values of the
parameters and provided design charts of Ks as func- coefficient of punching shear (Ks) computed using
tions of δ/φ, cu and φ . The ratio of mobilised friction equation (2).
angle (δ/φ) were in turn modelled as a function of
the ratio of the bearing capacity of the sand and clay Table 1. BR-470 punching shear coefficients
________________________________
layers (qc/qs); where qc is the ultimate bearing capaci- ϕ Kp tan δ Ks
________________________________
ty of the footing over uniform clay and qs is the ulti- 35 3.1 4.4
mate bearing capacity of the same footing on a deep 40 5.5 6.6
sand layer. The bearing capacity of a strip footing on 42.5 7.4 8.1
45 10.0 10.0
a sand layer over soft clay, calculated by Equation 1 47.5 14.0 12.8
shows fairly good agreement with the results of 50 20.0 16.8
________________________________
model tests (Meyerhof 1974). However Equation 1
tends to underestimate the bearing capacity for large
The application of BR-470 design approach is
friction angles.
limited to subgrades with undrained shear strength
The coefficient of punching shear defined by
greater than 20 kPa. The guideline recommends us-
Meyerhof is highly dependent on the mobilised fric-
ing more complex methods for the design of work- ered as providing an accurate estimate of the true
ing platforms over very soft subgrades. bearing capacity with an error of less than 5%.
BR-470, φ= 47.5˚
12.5
500
qu (kPa)
10 BR-470, φ= 45˚
Lower Bound
300 Upper Bound φ=45°
7.5
FELA average φ=47.5°
BR-470 φ=50°
100 5
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
cu (kPa) cu (kPa)
Figure 3. Coefficients of punching shear for B= 0.6 m, H= 0.8
m.
b) φ = 50˚ 20
Coefficient of Punching Shear (Ks) B = 0.6m
BR-470 B = 1.8m
700
15
cu=60kPa
500
qu (kPa)
40kPa
Lower Bound 10
300 FELA Average 20kPa
Upper Bound
BR-470
5
100 0.4 0.8 1.2 1.6
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 H (m)
cu (kPa) Figure 4. Coefficients of Punching Shear Ks for φ= 50˚.
Figure 2. Ultimate bearing capacity of platform for a) φ= 47.5˚
b) φ= 50˚ (H= 0.8 m, B= 0.6 m) 30
φ= 55˚
Coefficient of Punching Shear (Ks)
Clay
Figure 6. (a) Power dissipation intensity and (b) velocity plot for φ= 50˚, cu/γH= 2.0 (B= 0.6 m, H= 0.8 m, cu= 30 kPa).
Sand
Clay
Figure 7. (a) Power dissipation intensity and (b) velocity plot φ= 45˚, cu/γH= 7.14 (B= 0.6 m, H= 0.4 m,
cu= 50 kPa).
Figure 5, shows for friction angles of 50˚, 47.5˚ not true for the sand in the top layer. The influence
and 55˚ that the coefficients of punching shear in- of using frictional soils in Limit Analysis on the lim-
crease with increasing cu/γH. In these cases, collapse it loads has been discussed initially by (Davis
of the footing resembles the punching shear mecha- 1968). It was concluded by Davis (1968) that such
nism of Meyerhof (1974) with the block of soil di- influence is not major unless the problem is strongly
rectly beneath the footing moving vertically down- constrained in a kinematic sense. However most ge-
wards. Figure 6 shows the power dissipation otechnical collapse loads are not strongly con-
intensity and the velocities for a footing with φ= 50˚ strained as they involve freely deforming ground
and cu/γH= 2.0 which clearly shows the punching surface and a semi-infinite domain Sloan (2013).
failure mechanism with shear planes extending close This condition also applies to the existing problem.
to vertical below the edges of the footing. For φ= Davis (1968) has concluded that in such cases the
45˚, Figure 5 shows that coefficients of punching Limit bounds can be considered as an acceptable es-
shear do not increase monotonically, instead reach- timation of the true limit loads (Sloan 2013).
ing a maximum value at cu/γH= 5. In this case, the
footing collapse is associated with a punching shear
failure mechanism that involves shear planes that 5 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
angle back under the footing. This is clearly shown
in Figure 7 for the footing with φ= 45˚ and cu/γH= The ultimate bearing capacity of temporary working
7.14. platforms has been investigated using Finite Element
The results presented in Figure 5 are based on the Limit Analysis. A parametric study was conducted
assumption that the materials used in the model fol- that considered a range of soil parameters and ge-
low the associative flow rule (normality rule) that is ometry typically encountered in the design of work-
ing platforms. Following the punching shear model Davis, E.H. 1968 Theories of plasticity and failure of soil
proposed by Meyerhof (1974) for the bearing ca- masses. In Lee, I.K. (ed.) Soil mechanics: Selected topics.
pacity of layered soils, the coefficient of punching New York, Elsevier
shear was back-calculated from the limit analysis re- Hanna, A.M. & Meyerhof, G.G. 1980 Design charts for
sults. ultimate bearing capacity of foundations on sand overlying
soft clay. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 17, 300-303.
Results show that for the range of parameters
Krabbenhoft, K., Lyamin, A.V., Hjiaj, M. & Sloan, S.W. 2005
analyzed, the coefficient of punching shear is not A new discontinuous upper bound limit analysis
dependent upon the footing width (B), at least for formulation. International Journal for Numerical Methods
practical purposes, but is instead a function of the in Engineering, 63, 1069-1088.
dimensionless parameter (cu/γH). Most previous Krabbenhøft, K., Lyamin, A.V. & Sloan, S.W. 2007
studies have not recognized this dependency. Burd Formulation and solution of some plasticity problems as
& Frydman (1997) identified that the bearing capac- conic programs. International Journal of Solids and
ity of a layered soil is a function of (cu/γH) in con- Structures, 44, 1533-1549.
sidering a load spread model for bearing capacity of Lyamin, A.V., Kjrabbenhoft, K. & Sloan, S.W. 2013 Adaptive
layered soils. limit analysis using deviatoric fields.
Finite Element Limit Analysis provided rigorous Lyamin, A.V. & Sloan, S.W. 2002 Lower bound limit analysis
bounds that bracketed the true bearing capacity of using non-linear programming. International Journal for
Numerical Methods in Engineering, 55, 573-611.
layered soils to within 5%. Consequently, back-
Meyerhof, G.G. 1974 Ultimate bearing capacity of footings on
calculated values of the coefficient of punching sand layer overlying clay. Canadian Geotechnical Journal,
shear can be used to accurately predict bearing ca- 11, 223-229.
pacity with less than 5% error. The results are sum- Salgado, R., Lyamin, A.V., Sloan, S.W. & Yu, H.S. 2004 Two-
marised as a chart plotting the coefficient of punch- and three-dimensional bearing capacity of foundations in
ing shear as a function of friction angle of the sand, clay. Geotechnique, 54, 297-306.
undrained cohesion of the clay and depth of the sand Sloan, S.W. 1988 Lower bound limit analysis using finite
layer. elements and linear programming. International Journal for
The punching shear model of Meyerhof (1974) Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics, 12,
assumes a simple mechanism in which the footing 61-77.
punches vertically through the sand layer. Results of Sloan, S.W. 2013 Geotechnical stability analysis.
Finite Element Limit Analysis showing the upper Geotechnique, 63, 531-572.
Terzaghi, K. & Peck, R.B. 1948 Soil mechanics in engineering
bound failure mechanisms are not presented in this
practice, New York, Wiley.
paper. However, these show that the shear planes
beneath the footing drift from vertical encroaching
under the footing. Further research to investigate the
mechanisms associated with the bearing capacity of
the layered soils is being conducted.
Finally, the coefficients of punching shear adopt-
ed in the BR-470 guideline for the design of working
platforms do not adequately model the variation of
the coefficient. Results of Finite Element Limit
Analysis showed that BR-470 over-predicts ultimate
bearing capacities for sites with very soft clay sub-
grades. Also due to its simplistic nature, the coeffi-
cients provided in BR-470 may under-estimate the
ultimate bearing capacity in other design conditions
especially in lower sand friction angles and stiffer
subgrades.
REFERENCES
The ultimate bearing capacity of footings resting on subsoils consisting of two layers
has been investigated for the cases of dense sand on soft clay and Ioose sand on stiff
clay. The analyses of different modes of soil failure are compared with the results of
model tests on circular and strip footings and some field 'observations of foundation
failures.
La force portante des fondations sur les sols composCs des deux couches est 6tudiCe
pour les cas de sable dense sur argile molle et de sable meuble sur argile raide. Les
analyses thkoriques de diffCrents schCmas de rupture du sol de fondation sont comparkes
avec les rksultats d'essais sur modkles riduits de semelles circulaires et filantes et quelques
observations de la rupture de fondations rkelles. [Traduit par le journal]
Ln 30 I I I
5 Model Tests (see Fig.4):
od
X Str~p 0 x
xLn2 5 - o Circle !Y 50
X d Diepth ~ r e s l e n ~t e i t s 8: 1 3 i n . ( ~ ' = 4 7 ' )
.
W
[r
4 Field Records : :: I Width \ x Strip o Circle
20 - Brown&Poterson(l964)
0
Dovisson (1972)
-
Z
1 15 -
2
3
,
a Theory
wu 4- Y o r n o g u c h i (1963):B=Z-4 1 n l 9 =36')
0
LL
W
0
loose fill of about 30' and a shape factor Loose Sand on Stiff Clay
s = 1 , the deduced K, would be about 2.7, Theory
which appears reasonable. I f the ultimate bearing capacity of a thick bed of
The second case record refers to a silo in the sand ( q t ) is much less than that o f the clay (q,),
St. Lawrence River Valley (Davisson 1972). the bearing capacity o f a footing on a thin sand
layer may be estimated on the simplifying assumption
The structure is 150 ft wide by 210 ft long that the layer rests on a rigid base. A solution o f this
and rests on a piled raft foundation at a depth limiting case has been obtained for a rough strip
of 5 ft in 7 0 ft of thick loose to compact sand footing (Mandel and Salencon 1972) and the cor-
f ll ovellying a 140 ft thick Leda Clay stratum. responding failure zones are shown in Fig. 5a for a
rough base. The sand mass beneath the footing fails
The clay has an average plasticity index of laterally by squeezing, and the ultimate bearing
40% and an undrained shear strength in- capacity may be expressed by
creasing from about 1600 p.s.f. at the surface
to about 2500 p.s.f. at a depth of about 80 ft.
Thc rapid settlement and tilting about the with a maximum o f
major axis of the structure on first loading
and subsequcnt dredging of the dock area in-
dicated at least local bearing capacity failure. In Eq. [8] N,' and N,,' are modified bearing ca-
pacity factors, which dependkon $, the ratio o f H/B,
Using thc total structural and fill loading of and the degree o f roughness o f the rigid base. The
9120 p.s.f. at dredge level and the surface theoretical factors N,' add N,,' for a rough base are
shear strength of the clay, the author con- shown in Fig. 6. These factors increase rapidly with
cluded that base failure had occurred. $ from the lower limits of N , and N,,, respectively,
and as the ratio o f H / B decreases from the depth
If the piled raft foundation is considered as ratio o f H f / B o f the failure surface in a thick bed of
an equivalent pier at dredge level and the sand. The values o f H f / B are given in the lower part
average shcar strength of the clay in the failure o f Fig. 6 for the factors N , and N,,.
zone is used with a 15% reduction as above, A solution for the bearing capacity o f a circular
the ultimate bearing capacity of the rectangu- footing on a thin sand layer resting on a rigid base is
lar foundation is estimatcd to be q,, = ( 1 + not yet available. However, on the simplifying as-
sumptions that in radial planes the stresses and shear
0.2 X 150/210) 0.85 X 2100 X 5 = 10200 zones are identical to those in transverse planes o f a
p.s.f. which is greater than the applied load. corresponding strip footing (Fig. 5a), the contact
Accordingly it may be suggested that local pressure distribution beneath the circle may be as-
sumed to be similar to that for a strip (Meyerhof and
edge failure of the clay has led to the tilting of Chaplin 1953). On this basis an approximate estimate
the silo by a portion of the equivalent pier of the ultimate bearing capacity o f a rough circular
punching through the 28 ft thick layer of com- footing can be obtained from the average contact
pact submerged sand between dredge level and pressure at failure and may be expressed by
the Leda Clay. The corresponding coefficient
K, can be deduced for various effective re-
with a maximum o f
duced widths of the foundation to give the
maximum value of K,, which is found for a
strip footing of 55 ft width or about one-third In Eq. [lo] s,' and s,,' are modified shape factors
of the base width of the equivalent pier. for circular footings, and the approximate values
For this type of edge failure the punching which have been determined by the proposed analysis
shearing resistance is mobilized on one side are shown in Fig. 7 . These factors decrease rapidly
only of the equivalent footing, and substituting
this data and corresponding undrained shear
strength of 1800 p.s.f. of the clay into the
modified Eq. [4] 9120 = 0.85 X 1800 X 5.14
+ 55 x 28'K, tan + / 2 x 55 gives K , tan + =
3.2 at failure. Using an estimated + of about
35" for the compact sand, the deduced K ,
is about 4.5. This value of K, as well as that
deduced from the other field record support
the corresponding theoretical coefficients, as FIG. 5. Failure of soil below footing on loose
shown in Fig. 2. sand layer above stiffclay.
MEYERHOF: ULTIMATE BEARING CAPACITY
LAYER THICKNESS !-! footings (Meyerhof 1951). Thus, Eq. [8] can be
FOOTING WIDTH B modified by multiplying the first term o f the right
10000 I I hand side by [ l - ( 1 - s,')B/L] and the second term by
.-G- I /0.2 [ I - ( 1 - s,~')B / L ] to obtain the ultimate bearing
Z 5000
/ i/ capacity o f a rectangle, with a maximum value inter-
polated between Eqs. [9]and [I 11.
As the bearing capacity o f the sand ( q t ) ap-
proaches that o f the underlying clay (q,,),the failure
surface beneath a footing resting on a thin layer o f
sand extends into the clay and the shear zones be-
come discontinuous at the interface (Fig. 5b). The
corresponding ultimate bearing capacity may be esti-
mated by using an empirical parabolic interaction
relationship o f
I I I I I
0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2-0 00
It is often the case that the base of a footing rests in a foundation material consisting of more
than one layer. Problems of this type have been under investigation by the authors for the last
few years, and the results of these studies were reported for footings on two layers of soil and
for footings on three layers of sand. This paper is an attempt to extend the authors' previous
theory to cover the case of footings resting on a subsoil consisting of a dense layer of sand over-
lying a soft clay deposit. The results of this analysis are presented in the form of design charts.
I1 est frCquent qu'une fondation superficielle repose sur un matCriau stratifie. Des problkmes
de ce type ont CtC CtudiCs par les auteurs depuis quelques annCes et les rCsultats de ces Ctudes
ont CtC rapportis pour le cas des semelles sur fondations bi-couches et pour des semelles sur un
tri-couches de sable. Cet article tente de gCnCraliser la thCorie antCrieure des auteurs au cas de
semelles reposant sur une fondation formCe d'une couche de sable dense au dessus d'un dCpBt
d'argile molle. Les resultats de cette analyse sont prCsentCs sous forme d'abaques de dimen-
sionnement.
[Traduit par la revue]
Can. Geotech. J., 17, 30C-303 (1980)
Dense Sand Overlying Soft Clay be taken as the total passive earth pressure P,, in-
The assumption involved in predicting the theoreti- clined at an average angle 6,acting upwards (Fig. 1).
cal ultimate bearing capacity from the punching Thus, for a strip footing of width B and depth D in
theory is that, at the ultimate load, a soil mass in the the upper sand layer, the ultimate bearing capacity is
upper sand layer of roughly truncated pyramidal approximately given by
shape (friction angle is pushed into the lower
layer (cohesion C2) (Meyerhof 1974). The forces on
[I] q, = qb + (2/B)(Pp sin 6) - TIHI qt
the assumed vertical punching failure surfaces in the where q ~and
, qt are the ultimate bearing capacities of
upper layer (of thickness of H below the footing) can the strip footing on a very thick bed of the lower soft
0008-3674/80/020300-04!$01.00/0
$j! 1980 National Research Council of Canada/Conseil national de recherches du Canada
NOTES 301
Assumed
- - X"'
Line Dense Sand
Failure Planes -
FIG.2. Method of determining the passive earth pressure on the assumed planes of failures.
CAN. GEOTECH. J. VOL. 17, 1980
TABLE1. Analysis of surface strip footing tests on dense sand overlying clay
footings, respectively (Meyerhof and Hanna 1978), and the ratio of qz/ql; Ks2 is the punching shear
as follows coefficient for the middle laver and can be determined
[61 q,, = qb, + ylH2(1 + 2 0 cos a/H)Ksis from the charts provided kere (Figs. 3, 4) knowing
the values of $ Z and the ratio of q3/q2;and f is the
tan +l/B - ylH 5 qtv average of y l and y 2 of the upper and middle layers,
and respectively.
Conclusions
The design charts presented in this paper, together
where q,, is the vertical component of the ultimate with the punching theory previously developed by the
bearing capacity q, in the direction of the load; qb,, authors, can be utilized to predict the ultimate bear-
and qt, are vertical components of the ultimate bear- ing capacity of footings on a dense sand layer over-
ing capacity under inclined loads qb and qt on thick lying a soft clay deposit.
beds of the lower and the upper soil, respectively
(Meyerhof 1953); a is the load inclination with the Acknowledgement
vertical; and is is the inclination factor given by
Meyerhof and Hanna (1978). The financial support from the Committee in Aid
For footings on two sand layers overlying a clay of Scholarly 'Activity of Concordia University and
deposit, [4] and [5] can be written as follows (Hanna the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research
and Meyerhof 1979) Council Canada is acknowledged.