A parametric study of the pull-out capacity of bucket foundations in soft clay

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of several parameters on the pull-out capacity of bucket foundations in soft clay. These parameters are load inclination, skirt length, foundation diameter, soil adhesion and soil anisotropy. Initially the soil is assumed to be isotropic soft clay, and is represented using a form of the modified Cam clay model. Some recent laboratory experiments performed in a hollow cylinder apparatus, which were designed to investigate strength anisotropy of a particular silt soil, are then used to represent the behaviour of an anisotropic soft clay. The anisotropic behaviour is simulated using anisotropic soil model MIT-E3. Both models are then used in finite element analyses to predict the behaviour of bucket foundations on pull-out. All analyses were performed using the three-dimensional Fourier series aided finite element method (FSAFEM).