Settlement and bearing capacity characteristics of shallow foundation models on unsaturated sand soils

This research focuses on investigating the bearing capacity and settlement of dry sandy soil by the use of physical modelling tests involving the loading of the surface of the foundation on the dry sand with various relative densities (Dr=50, 75, 95). The results indicated that increasing the relative density multiplies the obtained bearing capacities. In general, the load-settlement curves showed non-linear behaviour for the sand, indicating that the settlement of the footing increased with increasing the applied loading until failure occurred. Increasing the relative density from 50% to 75% and from 75% to 95% increased the bearing capacity by about 50% in each case. For the failure mechanism of both footings with dense and very dense sand, general shear failure with total rupture of the soil was observed, and a local shear failure was observed for the sand with medium relative density.