FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF SKIRTED FOUNDATION RESTING ADJACENT TO SAND SLOPE

Skirt foundations are generally used to improve the bearing capacity of the shallow footing on sandy soil. These are also considered as an alternative to the deep foundations in low strength soil. Slope stability is the resistance of inclined surface to failure either by sliding or collapsing. This paper reports the application of using a skirted foundation system to study the behavior of foundations with structural skirts adjacent to a sand slope. The skirts effect on controlling horizontal soil movement and decreasing pore water pressure beneath foundations and beside the slopes. This thesis paper is investigated numerically using MIDAS . A series of models for the problem under investigation were run under different skirt depths and lactation from the slope crest. Nodal displacement and element strains were analyzed for the foundation with and without skirts and at different parameters.