Abstract:

Strength anisotropy and non-homogeneity are common phenomenon in clays. It is obvious that the anisotropy and non-homogeneity characteristics influence the bearing capacity of the foundations. To study this influence, the multi-block upper bound method is employed to calculate the bearing capacity of smooth strip foundations resting on the clay with anisotropic and non-homogeneous strength. The failure mechanism adopted by the upper bound method has already been verified by other scholars to be the best mechanism to calculate the bearing capacity of the smooth strip foundations on isotropic and homogeneous soils. The implementation of the multi-block upper bound method to calculate the bearing capacities in the anisotropy and non-homogeneity clays is presented. And the calculation program is compiled in the Fortran 90 language. To examine the calculation results by the multi-block upper bound method, comparisons are made with the results given by the characteristic method and other solutions by the upper bound method. It can be found that the method in this paper always gives the best results in all of the other upper bound solutions mentioned. With the multi-block upper bound method in this paper, the values are given in figures for different anisotropic and non-homogeneous coefficients. The effect of non-homogeneity on the failure envelops is also discussed to disclose the inner reasons for the influence law of non-homogeneity on the bearing capacity.

Key words: non-homogeneity, anisotropy, upper bound, bearing capacity