Bearing capacity of foundation on rock mass depending on footing shape and interface roughness

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to study the influence of the footing shape and the effect of the roughness of the foundation base on the bearing capacity of shallow foundations on rock masses. For this purpose the finite difference method was used to analyze the bearing capacity of various types and states of rock masses under the assumption of Hoek-Brown failure criterion, for both plane strain and axisymmetric model, and considering smooth and rough interface. The results were analyzed based on a sensitivity study of four varying parameters: foundation width, rock material constant (mo), uniaxial compressive strength and geological strength index. Knowing how each parameter influences the bearing capacity depending on the footing shape (circular vs strip footing) and the footing base interface roughness (smooth vs rough), two correlation factors were developed to estimate the percentage increase of the ultimate bearing capacity as a function of the footing shape and the roughness of the footing base interface.