• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.345-358
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• 2020

Numerous studies have repeatedly demonstrated the efficiency of using skirts to increase the bearing capacity and to reduce settlement of shallow foundations subjected to static loads. However, no efforts have been made to study the efficiency of using these skirts to reduce settlement produced by machine vibration, although machines are very sensitive to settlement and the foundations of these machines should be designed properly to ensure that the settlement produced due to machine vibration is very small. This research has been conducted to investigate the efficiency of using skirts as a technique to reduce the settlement of a strip foundation subjected to machine vibration. A two-dimensional finite element model has been developed, validated, and employed to achieve the aim of the study. The results of the analyses showed that the use of skirts reduces the settlement produced due to machine vibration. However, the percentage decrease of the settlement is remarkably influenced by the density of the soil and the frequency of vibration, where it rises as the frequency of vibration increases and declines as the soil density rises. It was also found that increasing skirt length increases the percentage decrease of the settlement. Importantly, the results obtained from the analyses have been utilized to derive new dynamic impedance values that implicitly consider the presence of skirts. Finally, novel design equations of dynamic impedance that implicitly account to the effect of the skirts have been derived and validated utilizing a new intelligent data driven method. These new equations can be used in future designs of skirted strip foundations subjected to machine vibration.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.41-54
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• 2023

The use of a skirt, a vertical projection attached to the footing, is a recently developed method to increase the bearing capacity of soils and reduce foundation settlements. Most of the studies were focused on vertical skirted circular footings resting on clay while neglecting the rigidity and inclination of skirts. This study employs finite element limit analysis to investigate the bearing capacity enhancement of flexible and rigid inclined skirts in cohesionless soils. The results indicate that the bearing capacity initially improves with an increase in the skirt inclination but subsequently decreases for both flexible and rigid skirts. However, the rigid skirt exhibits more apparent optimum skirt inclination and bearing capacity enhancement than the flexible one, owing to differences in their failure mechanisms. Furthermore, the bearing capacity of the inclined skirted foundation increases with the skirt length, footing depth, and internal friction angle of the soil. In the case of rigid skirts, the bearing capacity increases linearly with skirt length, while for flexible skirts, it reaches a stable value at a certain skirt length. The efficiency of the flexible footing reduces as the footing depth and soil internal friction angle increase. Conversely, the efficiency of the rigid skirt decreases only with an increase in the depth of the footing. The paper also presents a detailed analysis of various failure patterns, highlighting the behaviour of inclined skirted footings. Additionally, nonlinear regression equations are provided to quantify and predict the bearing capacity enhancement with the inclined skirts.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.79-98
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• 1999

In the present study, a simple finite element method of analysis to predict non-uniform settlements at the interface between the mat foundation and foundation soils is proposed. Based on the proposed finite element method of analysis, the method to evaluate load sharing ratios of the foundation soils adjacent to the granular group piles is also presented. Further proposed is a procedure to estimate ultimate bearing capacity of the skirted granular group piles in a square pattern. To verify validity of the proposed methods and the estimated ultimate bearing capacity of the skirted group piles, comparisons are made with the results analyzed by using the PENTAGON3D FEM program. Finally, behavior characteristics with different reinforcement patterns of the skirts and the effect of an increase of ultimate bearing capacity due to the skirts are analyzed in connection with the design parameters.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.51-66
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• 2022

The article presents the results of finite element analyses carried out on skirted footings. The bearing capacity increases with the provision of the flexible and rigid skirt, but the effectiveness varies with various other factors. The skirts are more efficient in the case of cohesionless soils than cohesive and c-ϕ soils. Efficiency reduces with an increase in the soil strength and footing depth. The rigid skirt is relatively more efficient compared to the flexible skirt. In contrast, to the flexible skirt, the efficiency of the rigid skirt increases continuously with skirt length. The difference in the effectiveness of both skirts becomes more noticeable with an increase in the strength parameters, skirt length, and footing depth. The failure mechanism also changes significantly with the inclusion of a rigid skirt. The rigid skirt behaves as a solid embedded footing, and the failure mechanism becomes confined with an increase in the skirt length. Few small-scale laboratory tests were carried out to study the flexible and rigid skirt and verify the numerical study results. The numerical analysis results are further used to develop nonlinear equations to predict the enhancement in bearing capacity with the provision of the rigid and flexible skirts.