Behavior of strip footing rested on undrained clay using consistency limits-based constitutive law

Abstract

The behavior of undrained clay was extensively studied by many earlier researchers. A lot of constitutive models were developed to describe the behavior of undrained clay based on its mechanical properties. The aim of this research is to present an innovative constitutive model for undrained clay based on its consistency limits and water content. The main concept of this model is to estimate the mechanical properties of clay using earlier correlations with consistency limits, then implement the estimated mechanical properties in a hyperbolic model and calibrate the hyperbolic parameters to match the failure criteria of the undrained clay. To verify the validity of the developed constitutive model, it was applied on a standard problem which is a strip footing rested on undrained clay layer, the results confirmed the ability of the model to simulate the nonlinear behavior of undrained clay up to ultimate condition. The main advantage of this constitutive model is the ability to capture the reduction of mechanical properties of clay with the increase in its water content, which makes it ideal to study the impact of seepage on shallow foundation.