Analysis of Ring Foundation Using Finite Element Method

TLDR: In this article, the effect of ring footings on the bearing capacity of ring foundations has been investigated by means of centrifuge rnodelling, the method of characteristics and the finite element technique.

Abstract: The ring footings are suitable and economical for symmetrical structures such as silos, cooling towers, smoke-stacks, transmission towers, radar stations, TV antennae, chimneys, bridge piers, underground stops, water towers, mine and liquid storage tanks. When compared with the other geometrical shapes of the footings, such as (strip, rectangular, square and circular footings). The ring footings enable decreasing the amount of material used and cost of construction. Ring foundations are often adopted for large and tall structures to resist lateral loads and to increase the stability against overturning. In the design of ring foundations, very cmde simplifications have to be made. Therefore, developing a rational and practical procedure for estimating the bearing capacity of ring foundations is of great importance The effects of footing size, ring radii ratio and load eccentricity have been investigated by means of centrifuge rnodelling, the method of characteristics and the finite element technique.This study presents a series analysis of ring foundation. For analysis ten different model were used. The first of the model footings were circular; the others were ring footings. The diameters of the inner boundaries of the ring foundations for the analysis were 15.75 external dia 14.50m internal dia. The experimental studies indicate that the bearing capacity of the ring footings is depend directly on the ratio of the inside to outside radii, i.e. radius ratio. The Finite Element Method (FEM) Its practical application often known as finite element analysis] is a numerical technique for finding approximate solution to partial differential equation (PDE) and their systems as well as integral equation. In simple terms FEM is method for dividing up a very complicated problem in to small elements that can be solved in relation to each other. The finite-element method (FEM) for a ring foundation is somewhat similar to the beam on-elastic-foundation method. SAP2000 is a general purpose finite element program which performs the static or dynamic, linear or nonlinear analysis of structural systems. It is also a powerful design tool to design structures following AASHTO specifications, ACI and AISC building codes. These features and many more make SAP2000 the state-of-the-art in structural analysis program. The SAP2000 graphic user interface (GUI) is used to model, analyze, design, and display the structure geometry, properties and analysis results.