Stress delivery mechanism of Top Bases

팽이기초의 하중전달 메커니즘

Top-Base Foundation(TBF) was developed in Japan as a factory made concrete product. It is actively used in 6,000 sites by the end of 1980s in Japan and applied for a domestic patent in 1985. It is a shallow foundation whose effectiveness is proven by many relevant researchers and engineers. TBF was introduced to Korea in 1991 and has been applied mainly to architectural structures to date. Currently, the effectiveness in bearing capacity and settlement of TBF is being underestimated for civil engineering structures. Characteristics of Top-Base Foundation studied in Japan and Korea is known as follows: (1) as concrete part and crushed stone behave together, they perform the function of rigid mat; (2) the conical part and pile part of TBF disperses load by interaction with the crushed stone; (3) by preventing lateral strain and differential settlement on lower ground, it improves bearing capacity and constrains settlement at the same time. In Korea, it is used mostly in clayey soft grounds. The formula of bearing capacity and settlement of TBF suggested in Japan give the values of the underestimated. bearing capacity while its settlement is overestimated in comparison with the values measured from the field loading test. Therefore, in this study, the stress delivery mechanism of Top-Base Foundation developed in Japan and Floating Top Base developed in Korea is investigated through numerical analysis and laboratory model test.