Seismic bearing capacity of shallow foundations in Groningen

Seismic bearing capacity of shallow foundations in Groningen: A method comparison study

Van Schie, J.J.P.

Everts, H.J. (mentor)

Civil Engineering and Geosciences

Geoscience and Engineering

Geo-engineering

2016-07-05

The induced earthquakes in the north of the Netherlands cause problems for the shallow foundations. At this moment there is no generally accepted way to deal with these earthquakes. The NPR advises a combination of two methods to calculate the seismic bearing capacity of shallow foundations. In order to find out if this procedure is legitimately suitable for the situation present in Groningen, a literature study was done. This showed the method doesn’t take into account the fact that foundations in Groningen are often embedded. In order to make a comparison, a finite element model was created to recreate the situation that exists in practice, which was then compared to the results obtained by the NPR method. This comparison showed that the embedment of the foundation improved the seismic bearing capacity for dry and saturated sands. For clay materials, there was no improvement. The results also showed that the limits for seismic bearing capacity are not achieved under the current design values. The NPR method has potential, but can’t be applied in its current form. However, bearing capacity failure is not the only problem the earthquakes cause. It is recommended to do more research regarding effects such as liquefaction, cyclic softening, soil and structure inertia, and resonance in the area.

earthquakes
Groningen
seismic bearing capacity
foundations
waves
wave propagation
hardening soil
hardening soil small strain
PLAXIS
Deltares
numerical calculations
finite element calculations
NPR
soil structure interactions

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:56281599-e65b-45b2-a05c-46c2ed9027ac

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2016 Van Schie, J.J.P.