Experimental and theoritical analyses of continuos strip footing with a loss of support

At present, little generally accepted design or analysis method is available to determine stability and safety of a continuous strip footing located above a void or a loss of support. A local loss of soil support under an existing continuous strip footing can be caused by adjacent excavation for a new neighbour foundation, erosion by ground water, and compaction resulting from vibrations due to pile driving. This in turn induces unexpected increases in the values of contact br>which may cause to differential pressure beyond the allowable soil stress, failure of the existing building due settlements. The problem, however, had attention by researchers. received little The aim of this thesis is to investigate experimentally and theoretically using the photoelasticity and finite element techniques respectively, the effect of an edge loss of support underneath a continuous strip footing on the design parameters related to footing’s stability and safety such as the contact soil pressure, bending moment and shearing force. This is carried out for a wide range of a gap size, soil type, and footing stiffness. < The results for the case of no loss of support and the different cases of loss of support were compared. The results obtained using the previous two techniques were also compared. Curves and recommendations which ought to be considered by designers to assure safety of structure were introduced.