Bearing capacity of a footing

BEARING CAPACITY OF A
STRIP FOOTING VS. SQUARE FOOTING

This exercise has been created for PLAXIS 3D 2020

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Bearing capacity of a footing

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 Bearing capacity of a footing

INTRODUCTION
In this exercise a simple application using Plaxis 3D is considered, namely the analysis of the
bearing capacity of a strip footing compared to a square footing. The general procedures for
the creation of a geometry, the generation of a finite element mesh, the execution of a finite
element calculation and the evaluation of the output results are described here in detail.

Geometry

This exercise deals with the construction and loading of a footing on a clay layer. Due to
the symmetry of the model it is chosen to only model a quarter of the model (see figure 1).
The boundaries of the model are chosen such that the expected failure zone fits within the
boundaries of the model. Please note that for a deformation analysis the boundaries should
be chosen further away from footing in order to prevent influence from the boundaries on the
results. The calculation consists of 2 loading phases, one for the strip footing and one for the
square footing. Both footings are loaded until failure is reached.

Figure 1: Top views of the strip footing and square footing

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Bearing capacity of a footing

INPUT
Project properties
Start the PLAXIS 3D input program. A Quick select project dialog box will appear in which
you can select an existing project or create a new one; choose Start a new project. Now the
General settings window appears, consisting of the two tab sheets Project and Model (see
figures 3 and 4).

Figure 2: Quick select dialog box

The first step in every analysis is to set the basic parameters of the finite element model.
This is done in the Project properties window. These settings include the description of the
problem, the basic units and the size of the draw area. To enter the appropriate settings for
the raft foundation calculation follow these steps:

1. In the Project tab sheet, enter an appropriate name for the project in the Title box, for
instance “Footing” or "Strip footing vs. square footing" and type for instance “Bearing
capacity of a footing” in the Comments box.

2. Click on the Next button below or click on the Model tab sheet.

3. In the Model tab sheet, keep the default units in the Units box (Unit of length = m; Unit
of force = kN; Unit of time = day).

4. The General box indicates a fixed gravity of 1.0 G, in the vertical direction downward
(-Z). Also, the value of the acceleration of gravity is shown in the Earth gravity box at a
fixed value of 9.81 m/s2 .

5. In the γwater field the unit weight of water can be entered. Keep this to the default value
of 10 kN/m3 .

6. In the Contour box the size of the required draw area must be entered. Enter 0.0, 3.5,
0.0, 3.5 for xmin , xmax , ymin , ymax respectively.

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 Bearing capacity of a footing

Figure 3: Project tab sheet of the Project properties window

7. Click on the OK button to confirm the settings. Now the draw area appears in which the
geometry model can be created.

Figure 4: Model tabsheet of the Project properties window

Hint: In the case of a mistake or for any other reason that the general settings
need to be changed, you can access the Project properties window by
selecting the Project properties option from the File menu.

Once the general settings have been completed, the draw area appears with an indication of
the origin and direction of the system of axes. The x- and y-axis form the horizontal plane
of the geometry while the z-axis is pointing vertically up. A wireframe box indicates the outer
dimensions, hence the model contour, entered in the Project properties window.
The program is now in Soil mode, but before creating the model first the grid and snap interval
should be set:

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Bearing capacity of a footing

8. From the Options menu, choose the option Visualization settings.

9. In the Visualization settings window that now opens, go to the Grid box on the View
tabsheet.
10. Set Spacing to 1 m and Intervals to 2, so that the program will snap every 0.5m.

Soil mode
In Soil mode we will first define the subsoil of our project.
Information on the soil layers and the water table is entered using so called boreholes. Bore-
holes are locations in the draw area at which the information of the location of soil layers and
the water table is given. If multiple boreholes are defined, PLAXIS 3D will automatically in-
terpolate between the boreholes, and derive the position of the soil layers from the borehole
information.

Hint: Except for soil layers that are continuous over the entire draw area,
PLAXIS 3D can also deal with layers that are discontinuous by defining
the layer with a zero thickness in certain boreholes where necessary.

In the current example, only one soil layer is present, and only a single borehole is needed to
define the soil layer. In order to define the borehole, follow these steps:

1. Select the Create borehole tool ( ) from the geometry toolbar.

2. Click at a location in the cluster that represents the soil. It is suggested to click on
(0,0,0) but any other position would be fine as well. This places a borehole at location
(0,0,0) and opens the Modify soil layers window. The Modify soil layers window gives a
graphical representation of the current borehole on the left, and a table with layer data
on the right. However, for the first borehole initially both the graphical representation as
well as the table are empty.

3. Press the Add button ( ) to define a new layer in the borehole. By default both
the top and the bottom boundaries of the borehole are set to z = 0.0.
4. Change the bottom boundary to z = -4m. A representation of the borehole now appears
on the left hand side.
5. In order to define soil materials that can be assigned to the differnt layers in the borehole,
press the Materials button ( ). The Material sets window now opens, but the
list of available materials is still empty.
6. Click the New button to define a new material set for the soil according to table 1. Any
parameters not mentioned should be left at their default value.

After entering all material parameters close the window by clicking OK in order to return to the
Material sets window. The material set representing the clay has now appeared in the list of
available material sets.

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Table 1: Parameters for the clay layer

Parameter Symbol Clay Unit
General
Material model - Mohr-Coulomb -
Drainage type - Drained -
Unsaturated soil weight γunsat 16.0 kN/m3
Saturated soil weight γsat 18.0 kN/m3
Parameters
Young’s modulus E0 5000 kN/m2
Poisson’s ratio ν0 0.35 -
Cohesion c0ref 5 kN/m2
Friction angle ϕ0 20 o
o
Dilatancy angle ψ 0
Interfaces
Interface strength Rinter Rigid -
Initial
Coefficient for initial lateral stress K0 Automatic -

7. With the mouse, drag and drop the clay material set from the Material sets window onto
the borehole. The mouse cursor changes shape when the material set can be dropped.
After dropping the borehole should get the colour of the material set. Now close the
Material sets window in order to return to the Modify soil layer window.
8. In the Modify soil layer window directly above the graphical representation of the bore-
hole it is possible to specifty a general phreatic level for this borehole by changing the
Head value. In this project the water level is at ground level, therefore leave the Head to
0 m.

Figure 5: Borehole definition

9. Press OK to close the Modify soil layers window and return to the drawing area. In the
drawing area there is now a block of soil with the dimensions specified in the Project
properties window and a depth and colour according to the borehole.

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Bearing capacity of a footing

We have now finished defining the subsoil and we will continue defining the foundation.

Structures mode
First, we change to a top view in order to more easily draw the footing. To do so, click the Top
view button ( ) so that the Movement limitation window opens (see figure 6). Make sure that
the z-coordinate is fixed and set to 0.000.

Figure 6: Movement limitation window for top view

From the vertical toolbar select the Create surface option ( ).

10. Position the cursor at the coordinate (x y) = (0 0) , the position of the mouse cursor is
shown at the statusbar, and click the left mouse button once. The first surface point has
now been created.

11. Move to the right to position (x y) = (1.0 0.0). Click the left mouse button to generate the
second point.

12. Move upwards to position (x y) = (1.0 1.0) and click again. PLAXIS 3D will automatically
form a plane using the points inserted so far.

13. Move to position (x y ) = (0.0 1.0) and click again. We now have a rectangular surface.

14. Click the right mouse button to stop drawing.

We have now created the surface for the square footing, but it has to be extended for a strip
footing:

15. Again, select the option Create surface from the vertical toolbar.

16. Position the cursor at the coordinate (x y) = (0.0 1.0) , the position of the mouse cursor
is shown at the statusbar, and click the left mouse button once. The first surface point
has now been created.

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 Bearing capacity of a footing

17. Move to the right to position (x y) = (1.0 1.0). Click the left mouse button to generate the
second point.

18. Move upwards to position (x y) = (1.0 3.5) and click again. PLAXIS 3D will automatically
form a plane using the points inserted so far.

Please note that it may be necessary to change the grid and snapping options in order to be
able to draw with a 0.5m precision. This can be set through the Visualization settings in the
Options menu, for instance by setting either the Spacing to 0.5 m or alternatively by settings
the Intervals to 2.

19. Move to position (x y ) = (0.0 3.5) and click again. We now have a rectangular surface.

20. Click the right mouse button to stop drawing.

We have now created the surfaces for the square footing and the strip footing, but they’re just
surfaces. Next step is to specify that those surfaces are plate elements with a surface load:

21. Click the Perspective view button ( ) to return to the 3D overview in perspective of the
model.

22. Select the surface representing the square footing so that it becomes red and right-click
on this surface. From the popup-menu select Create plate to specifiy that this surface is
a plate. A local system of axis will now appear at the floor.

23. Right-click on the same surface again, but now from the popup-menu select Create
surface load to apply a surface load on this surface.

24. Repeat both actions this for the second surface, representing the remaining part of the
strip footing

Assign material set

The last part to be done in Structures mode is to assign a material set to the footing:

1. Click the Show materials button ( ) on the vertical Structures toolbar. The Material
sets window appears.

2. Set the material Set type to Plates and create a new material sets according to the
parameters specified in table 2.

3. From the Material sets window assign the appropriate plate material set to the footing
using drag and drop, that is drag the material set from the list of the material sets onto
the footing and drop it. The footing is now coloured blue.

4. Close the Material sets window.

This finalizes the input of all structures.

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Bearing capacity of a footing

Table 2: Material properties of the walls and floor

Parameter Name Footing Unit
Material type - Elastic -
Thickness d 0.25 m
Material weight γ 24 kN/m3
Isotropic - Yes -
6
Young’s modulus E1 31.0·10 kN/m2
Poisson’s ratio ν12 0.1 -
Shear modulus G12 14.09·10 kN/m2
6

Prevent punching - No -

Mesh mode
In the Mesh mode it is possible to specify global and local refinements and generate the mesh.
In order to generate more accurate results a refinement of the mesh below the footing should
be applied. When entering the mesh mode the total geometry is shown as dark grey.

1. In the geometry click on both plates while keeping the Ctrl key pressed on the keyboard.
This will select both plates.

2. In the Selection explorer on the left the selected plates appear, showing a mesh refine-
ment factor of 0.5. Change this mesh refinement factor to 0.25. Alternatively one can
right-click on the plates and choose the Refine mesh option, this will decrease the mesh
refinement factor to about 70%. Hence, doing this 2 times will also reduce the mesh
refinement factor to about 0.25.

Figure 7: Setting the mesh refinement in the Selection explorer

3. Select the Generate mesh button ( ) in order to generate the mesh. The Mesh options
window appears.

4. In the Mesh options window choose a Very coarse element distribution and click OK to
start the mesh generator.

5. After mesh generation has finished one can already see an indication of the amount of
elements and nodes generated in the command line box below the draw area.

6. Click the View mesh button ( ) to inspect the generated mesh.

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Figure 8: Generated mesh with local refinement

After inspecting the mesh the output window can be closed. Mesh generation has now been
finished and so creating all necessary input for defining the calculation phases has been
finished.

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Bearing capacity of a footing

Staged construction mode

The calculation consists of the initial phase and two additional phases. Since water levels will
remain constant the Water levels mode can be completely skipped.
In the Staged construction mode on the top left a new box has appeared: the Phases explorer.
The Phases explorer contains the list of all defined phases.

Initial phase
The first time the Staged construction mode is accessed only the Initial phase is present in
the Phase explorer. By default the Initial phase is set to the K0 -procedure, which is fine for
this example. No further changes have to be made.

First phase - square footing

1. Click on the Add phase button ( ) at the top of the Phase explorer to add the first
calculation phase.

We now have to activate the plate representing the square footing and its surface loads. How-
ever, currently the plates are not visible and can therefore not be selected by simply clicking
on the plates. For any object (soil volume, plate, interface etc.) that is not active and there-
fore not visible it is possible to select the object by selecting the thin wireframe indicating the
circumference of the object.

2. Select the thin wireframe of the plate representing the square footing so that the selected
surface becomes visible in the Selection explorer.

3. In the Selection explorer, activate the plate and the surface load. Open the surface load
branch and fill in a vertical load of -1000 kN/m2 , see figure 9.

Now the square footing as well as the surface load has been activated, see figure 10.
This finalises the definition of the first calculation phase.

Second phase - strip footing

In this phase we will calculate the strip footing as a separate bearing capacity calculation. This
means that the second phase should NOT start from the first phase, but should start from the
initial phase.

1. In the Phases explorer select the initial phase.

2. Click on the Add phase button ( ) to add the second calculation phase. The second
phase should automatically start from the initial phase.

We now have to activate the all plates to activate the strip footing and its surface load.

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 Bearing capacity of a footing

Figure 9: Activate the plate and load using the Selection explorer

3. Similar to the previous calculation phase; select the thin wireframe of both plates rep-
resenting the strip footing so that the selected surfaces become visible in the Selection
explorer.

4. In the Selection explorer, activate the plates and the surface loads. Open the surface
load branch and fill in a vertical load of -1000 kN/m2 .

5. Now the complete strip footing as well as the surface loads have been activated, see
figure (11).

Load-displacement curves

6. Press the Select points for curves button ( ) in order to select a node for load-displacement
curve. The output program opens, showing all nodes and stress points.

7. On the right hand side, fill in the coordinates (x y z) = (0 0 0) for the Point-of-interest
coordinates and press the Search closest button to find nodes and stress points close
to the chosen coordinates.

8. A list of nodes and stress points will appear. Activate the plate node that is exactly at (x
y z) = (0 0 0); the node should now appear in the Select points list.

9. Press the Update button to leave the output program and return to the input program.

Press the Calculate button ( ) to start the calculation. Note that since we increase the loads
on the plates until failure, both calculation phases will stop showing a red cross ( ) indicating
failure.

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Bearing capacity of a footing

Figure 10: Square footing with activated surface load.

Figure 11: Strip footing with activated surface load.

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OUTPUT
Once the calculation has been completed, the results can be evaluated in Plaxis Output. In
Plaxis Output the displacement and stresses are shown in the full 3D model, but the compu-
tational results are also available in tabular form. To view the results for the current analysis,
follow these steps:

1. Select the first calculation phase (Phase 1) in the Phases explorer. Click on the View
calculation results button ( ) to open Plaxis Output program. Plaxis Output will by
default show the 3D deformed mesh at the end of the selected calculation phase, hence
the deformed mesh for the square footing at failure.

2. At the top of the output screen it is possible to change between phases. Change to
Phase 2 in order to see the results for the strip footing at failure.

Figure 12: Deformed mesh for the square footing (left) and strip footing (right) at failure

3. From the Deformations menu, select Incremental displacements and then |∆u| in order
to see the incremental total displacements at failure as shaded plot.

Failure load
In PLAXIS in a staged construction calculation a change of geometry or loads causes a certain
unbalance between the internal stresses in the soil and interfaces and the externally applied
loads including weights. This unbalance is solved using a multiplier ΣMstage so that ΣMstage =0
if the unbalance is fully present in the model and ΣMstage =1 if the unbalance has been com-
pletely solved, hence the final situation is reached. In general, if a calculation fails for ΣMstage

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Bearing capacity of a footing

Figure 13: Incremental displacement |∆u| at failure for both footings.

<1 the failed situation is a non-physical siuation as no equilibrium between externally applied
loads and internal stresses has been reached.
However, in the very specific situation that in a staged construction phase only one load is
changed and no other changes are made, it can be said the in case of preliminary failure
(hence when ΣMstage <1) the failure load equals Qf ailure = ΣMstage · Qinput .
The reached value of ΣMstage can be found in the Output program under the Calculation in-
formation option in the Project menu. In the window that opens after choosing this option
the value of ΣMstage is given as Active proportion of stage in the Staged construction section.
Alternatively, one can make a load-displacement curve to see the failure load. To do so follow
these steps:

1. In PLAXIS Output click the Curves manager button ( ). The Curves manager window
will open.

2. In the Curves manager window click the New button to create a new curve. Now the
Curve generation window will open.

3. In the Curve generation window:

(a) Select for the X-Axis "point A" from the dropdown list, and from the treeview below
select Deformations→Total displacements→ |u| in order to get the settlements of
the footing on the horizontal axis
(b) Select for the Y-axis "Project" from the dropdown list, and from the treeview below
select Multiplier → ΣM stage
(c) Click the OK button to close the Curve generation window.

The resulting load-displacement curve, see figure 14, shows a value of ΣMstage = 0.13 at
failure for the strip footing and a value of ΣMstage = 0.157 at failure for the square footing. With
an input load of 1000 kN/m2 and a 6 kN/m2 weight of the plate this results in a failure load of
136 kN/m2 for the strip footing and a failure load of 163 kN/m2 for the square footing.

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 Bearing capacity of a footing

Figure 14: Load-displacement curves for the strip footing and the square footing

Some results of different analysis in 2D and 3D are compared with analytical solutions in
tables 3 and 4 below.

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Bearing capacity of a footing

Table 3: Maximum load reached on a strip footing on drained subsoil for different meshes
Mesh size Element Nr. of Max. Failure
type elements load load
[kN/m] [kN/m2 ]
2D
very coarse mesh with local refinements 6-noded 79 281 146
under footing
coarse mesh 6-noded 121 270 141
very fine mesh 6-noded 1090 229 121
very coarse mesh with local refinements 15- 79 236 124
under footing noded
coarse mesh 15- 121 248 130
noded
very fine mesh 15- 1090 220 116
noded
3D
very coarse mesh with local refinements 10- 4843 - 157
under footing noded
coarse mesh 10- 2785 - 147
noded
very fine mesh 10- 56034 126
noded
Analytical solutions of:
- Vesic 117
- Brinch Hansen 98
- Meyerhof 97

Table 4: Maximum load reached on a square footing on drained subsoil for different 3D meshes
Mesh size Element Nr. of Max. Failure
type elements load load
[kN/m] [kN/m2 ]
very coarse mesh with local refinements 10- 4843 - 163
under footing noded
coarse mesh 10- 2785 - 185
noded
very fine mesh 10- 56034 - 162
noded
Analytical solutions of:
- Vesic 131
- Brinch Hansen 115
- Meyerhof 115

In these tables the failure load has been calculated as:

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Qu M aximum f orce M aximum f orce

B
= B
+ γconcrete ∗ d = 2
+6

From the above results it is clear that fine FE meshes give more accurate results. On the other
hand the performance of the 15-noded elements is superior over the performance of the lower
order 6-noded elements. Needless to say that computation times are also influenced by the
number and type of elements.

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Bearing capacity of a footing

APPENDIX A: BEARING CAPACITY

CALCULATION
Given the formula for bearing capacity of a footing:

Qf
B
= c · Nc · Sc + 12 γ 0 B · Nγ · Sγ
0
Nq = eπ tan ϕ tan2 (45 + 21 ϕ0 )
0
 q − 1) cot ϕ
Nc = (N
0
2(Nq + 1) tan ϕ
 (V esic)
Nγ = 1.5(Nq − 1) tan ϕ 0
(Brinch Hansen)
 0
(Nq − 1) tan(1.4 ϕ ) (M eyerhof )


The parameters Sc and Sγ are factors depending on the shape of the foundation:
Shape factor Sc Sγ
circular foundation 1.3 0.6
infinite strip foundation 1.0 1.0
square foundation 1.3 0.8

Filling in given soil data:

Nq = eπ tan(20) tan2 (55) = 6.4

 − 1) cot(20) = 14.84
Nc = (6.4
2(6.4 + 1) tan(20) = 5.39
 (V esic)
Nγ = 1.5(6.4 − 1) tan(20) = 2.95 (Brinch Hansen)

(6.4 − 1) tan(28) = 2.97 (M eyerhof )


The effective weight of the soil:

γ 0 = γw − 10 kN/m3 = 18 − 10 = 8 kN/m3

For a strip foundation this gives:


1 2
5 ∗ 14.83 ∗ 1.0 + 2 ∗ 8 ∗ 2 ∗ 5.39 ∗ 1.0 ≈ 117 kN/m
 (V esic)
Qf
B
= c·Nc ·Sc + 12 γ 0 B·Nγ ·Sγ = 5 ∗ 14.83 ∗ 1.0 + 21 ∗ 8 ∗ 2 ∗ 2.95 ∗ 1.0 ≈ 98 kN/m2 (Brinch Hansen)

5 ∗ 14.83 ∗ 1.0 + 21 ∗ 8 ∗ 2 ∗ 2.87 ∗ 1.0 ≈ 97 kN/m2 (M eyerhof )


And for a square foundation:


1 2
5 ∗ 14.83 ∗ 1.3 + 2 ∗ 8 ∗ 2 ∗ 5.39 ∗ 0.8 ≈ 131 kN/m
 (V esic)
Qf
B
= c·Nc ·Sc + 12 γ 0 B·Nγ ·Sγ = 5 ∗ 14.83 ∗ 1.3 + 21 ∗ 8 ∗ 2 ∗ 2.95 ∗ 0.8 ≈ 115 kN/m2 (Brinch Hansen)

5 ∗ 14.83 ∗ 1.3 + 21 ∗ 8 ∗ 2 ∗ 2.87 ∗ 0.8 ≈ 115 kN/m2 (M eyerhof )


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