Bearing Capacity of Movable Dam Foundation on Soft Clay Soil Subjected to Combined Loading in Mekong Delta

Abstract

Movable dam is one of river barriers that has been studied and applied effectively in the Mekong Delta. The principle of increasing the stability of the dam by enlarging foundation width to reduce the normal pressure so that the dam could be placed directly on soft clay soil without soil improvement. The characteristic of the movable dams is low vertical loading, large horizontal loading and moment. Bearing capacity of strip footing under eccentric and inclined loads subjected to combined loading V: H: M is extremely complicated. In the case of the movable dam, it is difficult to evaluate bearing capacity on soft soil because of low vertical loading but high eccentric and inclined ones. On the other hand, the soil-structure interaction is also difficult to analyze. This study presents the bearing capacity of movable dam footing on clay subjected to combined load V:H:M that is based on failure envelope by numerical analysis and compare the results with previous researches. The authors also present method to check the stability of movable dams on soft clay soils subjected to combined load in Mekong Delta.