Abstract
This article addresses the numerical analysis of the load-settlement relation of footing on a soil ground by the finite difference method incorporating the subloading surface model. The subloading surface model is the elastoplastic constitutive model describing most pertinently the plastic strain rate due to the rate of stress inside the yield surface so as to fulfill the continuity and the smoothness conditions. For the finite difference program FLAC3D is used, which adopts the explicit dynamic relaxation method without solving the total stiffness matrix equation and thus has the capability for the remarkable reduction of calculation time. The relevance of the present approach to the description of the load-settlement curve exhibiting the ultimate load is demonstrated by the numerical experiments. Further, the applicability to the prediction of real behavior of footing-settlement is verified by comparison with the test data for sand grounds with a high friction property.
