A parametric study of the pull-out capacity of bucket foundations in soft clay

This paper investigates the effect of several parameters on the pull-out ca pacity of bucket foundations in soft clay. These parameters are load inclin ation, skirt length, foundation diameter, soil adhesion and soil anisotropy . Initially the soil is assumed to be isotropic soft clay, and is represent ed using a form of the modified Cam clay model. Some recent laboratory expe riments performed in a hollow cylinder apparatus, which were designed to in vestigate strength anisotropy of a particular silt soil, are then used to r epresent the behaviour of an anisotropic soft clay. The anisotropic behavio ur is simulated using anisotropic soil model MIT-E3. Both models are then u sed in finite element analyses to predict the behaviour of bucket foundatio ns on pull-out. All analyses were performed using the three-dimensional Fou rier series aided finite element method (FSAFEM).