Numerical Study of Behavior of Eccentric-inclined Loaded Strip Footing Resting above a Soil Mass Containing a Void

The presence of any underground cavity in the soil stratum can seriously harm the structural performance of the overlying facility. These may develop because of mining, tunneling, water, and gas networks or outdated channels. In the present investigation, a circular void is considered, and its effect on the surface strip footing (in the form of ultimate load (UL), ultimate settlement (US), footing tilting, and footing horizontal displacement (HD)) is studied using numerical simulation. The variable parameters are load eccentricity (e), load inclination (α), and geogrid reinforcement location (u). It is observed that as the load inclination and eccentricity increases, the UL decreases. For instance, in the unreinforced soil, u/B = 0, at load inclination of α = 0°, 10°, 20°, and 30°, the UL is 249, 200, 142, and 97 kN/m, respectively. Moreover, as the geo-grid location is changed, the UL first increases when placed near the footing (u/B = 0.10), and thereafter, starts to decrease as the distance between footing and geo-grid increases. For instance, the UL is 249, 278, 267, 260, 259, and 256 kN/m when e/B = 0.0, α = 0°, and u/B varies from 0 to 0.5 with an increment of 0.1. The tilting increases as the eccentricity is increased; for example, u/B = 0.0 for α = 0°; the tilting values are 0°, 0.12°, 0.31°, and 0.61°. Moreover, as the load eccentricity increases, the HD decreases (for u/B = 0.1 and α = 10°, the HD is 4.20, 3.5, 3.00, and 2.60 mm, respectively.