Observations of footing behaviour on loose carbonate sands

Recent studies of footings subjected to combined loads have successfully described the elasto-plastic deformation behaviour of the footing by the use of work-hardening plasticity models (Tan, 1990; Martin, 1994; Gottardi et al., 1999). The postulate is that, after a given footing penetration, a yield surface is established within vertical, moment and horizontal ({V: M/2R: H}) load space (denoted for a circular footing of radius R). Any footing behaviour within this surface is assumed to be elastic, while elasto-plastic behaviour occurs once the load point reaches the yield surface...