Abstract
Abstract This study investigates the soil–slab interaction for waffle slabs supporting residential structures on highly expansive soils. Interaction modelling techniques are reviewed, and the implications of the modelling assumptions typically employed are discussed. More realistic modelling assumptions are proposed, and their effects are investigated. For this purpose, advanced incremental/inelastic FE models are developed in OpenSees to capture the slab structural response during the history of soil movement in heave condition. Soil profile (mound shape), soil stiffness profile and soil–slab contact are updated corresponding to growing mound. The study provides an insight into the resulting changes in bending moment and deformation demands on such slabs. It is found that the conventional assumption of a constant soft soil stiffness coupled with a stepped transition to that of hard soil is generally unconservative. The analyses also suggest that predefining a critical scenario and disregarding the history of loading is not necessarily conservative.
Highlights
Raft foundations are commonly used, in a number of places around the world, as the preferred foundation system for supporting structures
This study investigates the soil–slab interaction for waffle slabs supporting residential structures on highly expansive soils
Slabs are primarily designed to limit the differential movement of the structure considering the gravity loads that need to be safely transferred to ground and the potential movements of underneath reactive soil
Summary
Received: 13 March 2016 / Accepted: 21 June 2016 / Published online: 6 July 2016 Ó Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016
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