Analysis of bearing capacity of strip foundation resting on sand using discrete element method

Foundations are designed to transfer the load of the structure to a large area of the ground. The foundation should be designed in such a way that it can safely transfer structural loads without any failure of the soil or exceeding the permissible settlement. Finite element method is generally used as a numerical solution technique to model and calculate the bearing capacity of the soil. This approach takes three completely independent assumptions: continuity, homogeneity, and isotropy. The soil consists of contact granules and surrounding voids. The discrete element method is one of the methods that take into account the mechanical behavior of the soil. In this study, modeling, and analysis of the bearing capacity of the strip foundation resting on sand at different relative densities using the discrete element method was performed. The macro parameters of the sand modeled by the discrete element method, such minimum and maximum void ratio and shear strength, were obtained by modeling the relative density and the direct shear tests. The load-settlement relations obtained from the modeling of the bearing capacity experiment performed at different relative densities were compared with the results obtained by the bearing capacity theories (Terzaghi, Meyerhof, Brinch Hansen and Vesic). It was seen that the ultimate bearing capacity values obtained from the analysis results were higher than the ultimate bearing capacity values obtained from theories at 40%, 50% and 60% relative denisties, while the ultimate bearing capacity value obtained from the numerical analysis at 70% relative density were lower than the ultimate bearing capacity values obtained from the theories.