Effects of lime and cement treated platform on the behavior of circular footing founded on soft clay

Abstract

Application of the stabilized platforms beneath the footings is one of the methods employed by engineers for many years to address the soft clay problem. Numerical analysis of such a footing–foundation system requires comprehensive information about the treated layer, which usually requires a complicated laboratory test or field experiment. Such test or experiment is almost impossible for small and medium scale infrastructure projects because it is time consuming, labor-intensive, and very costly. In this study, some of the characteristics of the treated materials were obtained from the routine unconfined compressive tests and the rest were evaluated by application of a non-linear failure criterion. The estimated and measured parameters were then applied in finite element analyses to assess the effect of diameter, thickness, and mix type of a lime and cement treated platform on the bearing capacity and load–displacement behavior of a circular footing.