TY - JOUR AU - Magdy, Kyrillos AU - Altahrany, Ayman AU - Elmeligy, Mahmoud PY - 2022/08/01 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE BEHAVIORS OF SKIRTED FOUNDATIONS OF DIFFERENT SHAPES JF - GEOMATE Journal JA - INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GEOMATE VL - 23 IS - 96 SE - Articles DO - UR - https://geomatejournal.com/geomate/article/view/3328 SP - 104-111 AB - <p>Structural skirts are vertical or inclined walls that encircle the soil mass beneath the footing. They improve shallow footing load-settlement behavior by restricting the soil and containing the soil plastic flow. Limited studies comparing the load-settlement behaviors of skirted foundations of different shapes are available. Therefore, this study highlights the effects of skirts on the load-settlement behavior of shallow footing through a comparative study of the behavior of square and circular footing. Fourteen small-scale physical models were developed on a circular and square footing with different skirt depths to investigate the effect of skirt depth, skirt cell shape, and footing shape. 3D finite element models were conducted through experimental findings using PLAXIS 3D software. Results show that using the aforementioned skirted foundations improves the load-settlement behavior of loose sandy soil more effectively than compacted soil, making them a good alternative to deep foundations for soft soil at the surface. Under the current study conditions and variables, such skirts increase the ultimate load by up to 5.67 and 8.97 times for square and circular footing having a skirt depth ratio of 1.50, respectively. Furthermore, the reduction in settlement for the shallow footing is found to be &gt;61.8%. This study illuminated the effect of skirt cell shape, where the improvement in the load-settlement behavior was greater for the circular skirted footing than for the square when both had the same width and skirt depth. The finite element results of the load-settlement curves and bearing capacities were in close agreement with the experimental findings.</p> ER -