Response of Strip Footing Adjacent to Nonyielding Basement Wall

Abstract

A series of 1/3-scale experimental model tests were performed at the American University of Sharjah (AUS) to assess the performance of strip footing constructed adjacent to nonyielding basement wall. Different construction design parameters have been considered including the strip footing width (B), its distance from nonyielding wall back (a), and footing embedment depth below the backfill surface (D_f). The effects of nonyielding wall proximity to the strip footing were investigated. The experimental results show that the lateral deflection of the nonyielding wall is a major factor in dictating the load carrying capacity of the strip footing. The vertically loaded strip footing imposed significant vertical and horizontal forces at the wall top and bottom boundaries. The strip footing load carrying capacity increased as the footing width decreased, the distance from the wall increased and the embedment depth increased. Meanwhile, the vertically loaded strip footing imposed significant vertical and horizontal forces at the wall top and bottom boundaries. The data gathered from this program is used to identify deficiencies in current design methodologies for similar soil structure interaction problems.