Bearing capacity of strip foundations with structural skirts

A modified bearing capacity equation is proposed for skirted strip foundations on dense sand. A series of tests on foundation models were carried out to study the factors that affect the bearing capacity of foundations with skirts. Several factors including foundation base friction, skirt depth, skirt side roughness, skirt stiffness and soil compressibility were studied and incorporated in the equation. The results obtained from the proposed equation were compared with the results obtained from Terzaghi, Meyerhof, Hansen and Vesic bearing capacity equations for foundations without skirt. Comparison shows that the use of structural skirts can improve the bearing capacity by a factor of 1.5 to 3.9 depending on the geometrical and structural properties of the skirts and foundation, soil characteristics and interface conditions of the soil-skirt-foundation system.