When the depth of stressed soil is rather small, Plate Load Test (PLT) becomes the most efficient test to estimate the soil properties for design purposes. Among these properties, modulus of subgrade reaction is the most important one that usually employed in roads and concrete pavement design. Two methods are available to perform PLT: static and dynamic methods. Static PLT is usually adopted due to its simplicity and time saving to be performs in comparison with cyclic (dynamic) method. The two methods are described in ASTM standard.

In this paper the effect of the test method used in PLT in estimation of some mechanical soil properties was distinguished via a series of both test methods applied in a same site. The comparison of

Shallow foundations have been commonly used to transfer load to soil layer within the permissible limits of settlement based on the bearing capacity of the soil. For most practical cases, the shape of the shallow foundation is of slight significance. Also, friction resistance forces in the first layers of soils are negligible due to non-sufficient surrounding surface area and compaction conditions. However, the bearing capacity of a shallow foundation can be increased by several techniques. Geocell is one of the geosynthetic tool applied mainly to reinforce soil. This study presents a numerical approach of honeycombed geocell steel panels reinforcing the sandy soil under shallow foundation, and several parameters are investigated such as th

Shear lag is the phenomenon that occurs when a supported slender member undergoes deformation from lateral loading, causing in-plane non-uniform distribution of stresses that results in reducing the member’s minimum strength capacity. This paper investigates the behaviour of shear distribution in steel I-section and box girders when subjected to both static and impact loadings. Three-dimensional finite element analysis models were prepared in Strand7 and validated against experimental results providing a basis for further comparison research into shear lagging effects. A parametric study was conducted comparing the effects of impact loading through certain specified velocities at the midspan of restrained ends. It provided new ins

The major cause of destruction during vertical vibration is the failure of the soil structure. The soil may fail due to loss of strength during continues vibration. The saturated sandy soil losses strength due to an increase in pore pressure, this phenomenon is called "liquefaction". Piled foundations are usually adopted as a foundation solution in potentially liquefiable soil under dynamic loading. In this research, 3D finite element model using PLAXIS Software was employed for pile foundation in saturated sandy soil. The results show the acceleration mobilization and velocity on the footing increases with increasing the intensity of dynamic loads and it becomes zero at maximum value of vertical settlement which indicates the end of the ti

Expansive soils are recognized by their swelling potential upon wetting due to the existence of some clay minerals such as  montmorillonite. An effective solution was found to avoid the danger of such soils by using piles. A single pile embedded in an elasto-plastic expansive soil has been analyzed by using one of the available software which is ABAQUS to investigate the effect of applied loads on pile’s top and investigate the effect of swelling soils on load carrying capacity of the pile. The result shows that as the pile is axially loaded at its top, the axial force along the pile gradually changes from (tension) to (compression) and the pile tends to move downward. The applied load needed to initiate pile’s settlement depend

The continuous increase in population has led to the development of underground structures like tunnels to be of great importance due to several reasons. One of these reasons is that tunnels do not affect the living activities on the surface, nor they interfere with the existing traffic network. More importantly, they have a less environmental impact than conventional highways and railways. This paper focuses on using numerical analysis of circular tunnels in terms of their behavior during construction and the deformations that may occur due to overburden and seismic loads imposed on them. In this study, the input data are taken from an existing Cairo metro case study; results were found for the lateral and vertical displacements, the Peak

In order to understand the effect of (length of pile / diameter of pile) ratio on the load carrying capacity and settlement reduction behavior of piled raft resting on loose sand, laboratory model tests were conducted on small-scale models. The parameters studied were the effect of pile length and the number of piles. The load settlement behavior obtained from the tests has been validated by using 3-D finite element in ABAQUS program, was adopted to understand the load carrying response of piled raft and settlement reduction. The results of experimental work show that the increase in (Lp/dp) ratio led to increase in load carrying capacity by piled raft from (19.75 to 29.35%), (14.18 to 28.87%) and (0 to 16.49%) , the maximum load carried

Various simple and complicated models have been utilized to simulate the stress-strain behavior of the soil. These models are used in Finite Element Modeling (FEM) for geotechnical engineering applications and analysis of dynamic soil-structure interaction problems. These models either can't adequately describe some features, such as the strain-softening of dense sand, or they require several parameters that are difficult to gather by conventional laboratory testing. Furthermore, soils are not completely linearly elastic and perfectly plastic for the whole range of loads. Soil behavior is quite difficult to comprehend and exhibits a variety of behaviors under various circumstances. As a result, a more realistic constitutive model is