Interference Effect of Closely Spaced Foundation Footing on Settlement Variation

Abstract

Industrialization and urbanization have run into situations where the construction of buildings is close to each other. Tis closeness arises due to the restricted available space in a practical construction manner. Such a situation was a reason for the cause of footing of the same and adjacent structures coming closer. Tis condition causes interference efects, soil-structure interaction, and the stress zone impact to behave diferently other than the continuum soil media in the vicinity under the base of the foundation due to overlap stress distribution, which results in excessive foundation settlement. Terefore, the study aims to assess the interference efect of closely spaced footing on settlement variation. In this regard, comprehensive experimental soil properties were conducted using the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) testing procedures to characterize soil behavior. Te interference of two footings in the settlement is studied using 3D fnite element analysis. Te hardening soil was used to model the foundation soil medium using the Plaxis 3D program. Certain vital factors of two neighboring footings for difering maximum loads, distance, embedment ratio, soil layer, and groundwater level are discovered to impact overlapping footing infuence. It is observed that the spacing between the footings increases, and the interference impact on the overlapping footings declines, reaching the isolated footing condition at spacing higher than fve foundation footing dimensions and increasing when the spacing between the footings decreases.