For tall building and heavy loaded structures founded in poor subsoil conditions, underpinning foundations are extensively required. The use of underpinning foundation for small building and light structures is very expensive and costly. A low cost technique of underpinning foundation can be used for shallow footings of light structures resting on thick layers of soft soil. This technique is based on the lateral confinement of soft soil to a certain depth below footing level to decrease the footing settlement and increase the bearing capacity. In the present paper, experimental bearing tests were carried out to study the effect of laterally confinement of soft clay underneath sallow footings on bearing capacity and footing displacement. Also, a theoretical analysis for the proposed technique was presented. It is evident that, the lateral confinement of soft clay increases the bearing capacity of shallow footings and decreases the footing settlement. The obtained results from bearing capacity of shallow footings and decreases the footing settlement. The obtained results from bearing tests are presented, discussed and compared with those calculated from theoretical solutions. |
