Method to Increase Ultimate Bearing Capacity of Skirted Circular Footing

Bearing capacity is the most important factor in designing foundation. It is necessary to find a method to improve the bearing capacity. Skirts that are attached on the below of footing can be used as an alternative of the improvement. The method is implemented to improve the bearing capacity of shallow footing on sand soil. The aim of this study was to find the effect of additional skirt on the circular footing towards the bearing capacity of soil and towards the settlement. This study performed twelve laboratory experiments on steel circular footing with various diameters and skirt lengths. In addition, the type of soil used in this study was sand soil in which the formation of water content and compaction method was maintained. The laboratory tests indicated that skirts are very effective to improve the ultimate bearing capacity, as they can increase the length hence the ultimate bearing capacity can be enhanced by 4.70 times in certain study condition. Skirts are also capable to reduce the settlement. In general, the analysis on the same value of load of 2.00 kN indicated the decrease of the settlement is in accordance with the increase of the skirt length attached on the circular footing.