Determination of allowable bearing capacity of shallow foundation using modified hyperbolic stress-strain model

Abstract

Nondestructive test methods like Spectral Analysis of Surface Wave (SASW) are widely used in geophysics and geotechnical area to find a shear wave velocity model of the subsoil for various applications. This study employed the SASW method to determine shear wave velocity and damping parameters at various locations at a construction site. The predicted shear wave velocity along the depth was predicted in this study and then was used to determine the soil profile in the ground. Shear wave velocity variation in depth, along with the damping ration predicted through the Half Power Bandwidth method from the SASW measurements were employed to predict the allowable bearing capacity of a pad footing. The hyperbolic stress-strain model of Hardin and Drnevich (1972) and the empirical equation proposed by Tezcan et al. (2006) were utilized to predict the allowable bearing capacity. Results showed that, the average differences between the allowable bearing capacity of shallow foundation calculated from theoretical and Vs based empirical equations with Macintosh Probe test were consistent.