RIGID-PLASTIC FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS FOR ULTIMATE BEARING CAPACITY OF SPREAD FOUNDATION PIER AFTER LOCAL SCOURING

Abstract

In recent years, the damage to the spread foundation piers due to local scouring has been increasing by heavy rainfall and typhoon disasters. If the damage is of a medium scale that causes foundation settlement or tilting, the foundation can be repaired and restored in a short period through emergency restoration. Therefore, in order to make a quicker decision on the restoration of the foundation, it is important to understand the mechanism of the development of the residual bearing capacity. In this paper, the rigid-plastic finite element method (RPFEM) was applied to the bearing capacity problem of the ground after local scouring, in order to evaluate the bearing capacity characteristics immediately after the disaster. In addition to, Meyerhof’s effective footing width was introduced for scoured ground to discuss the analytical results. The numerical results showed that the decrease in ultimate bearing capacity due to scour was mainly due to the effect of the effective footing width and secondarily due to the effect of the slope near the foundation due to scour.