Application of Structured Soil Models to Shallow Footing Problems

Structured soils pose a serious challenge to the capabilities of geotechnical modellers wishing to produce accurate and reliable predictions of the behaviour of these soils when subjected to foundation loads. A major challenge arises from the presence of the soil's internal structure which complicates the stress-strain response of these materials. This paper considers a particular type of structured soil, cemented carbonate sand. A number of existing stress-strain models have been selected for study and their applicability for describing the response of this type of geomaterial in both drained triaxial compression tests and model footing tests is examined. On the basis of this investigation, a particular model, known as Structured Cam Clay, is adopted for more detailed examination of the response of shallow circular foundations on structured soils.