Load-Settlement Characteristics of Tropical Red Soils of Southern Nigeria

Nkechinyere M. Nwokediuko, Okiemute Roland Ogirigbo and Iziengbe Inerhunwa
Additional contact information
Nkechinyere M. Nwokediuko: Department of Civil Engineering, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria
Okiemute Roland Ogirigbo: Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria
Iziengbe Inerhunwa: Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria

European Journal of Engineering and Technology Research, 2019, vol. 4, issue 8, 107-113

Abstract: This study investigated the relationship between the load-settlement curves obtained from field (in situ) plate load test under static loading conditions to those obtained from finite element (FE) analysis, for tropical red soils. Three test locations were selected within the University of Benin campus in Benin City, Nigeria. Laboratory tests were conducted on samples obtained from these three locations to obtain the index and strength properties of the soil, and these were used as input parameters for the FE analysis. The FE analysis was performed with PLAXIS 2D, using Mohr-Coulomb soil model as the constitutive model. Comparison of load-settlement curves obtained from the field plate load test with those obtained from the FE analysis showed that the FE tool was able to predict the ultimate vertical displacement for all three test locations, with good accuracy. The maximum vertical settlement obtained for Site A from the field plate load test was 8.79 mm, while that obtained from FE analysis was 9.02 mm. For Sites B and C, it was 12.77 mm vs 12.30 mm and 22.85 mm vs 22.30 mm respectively. Parametric studies were also conducted in order to evaluate the effect of variations in soil conditions on the static response of the soils. Results from the water table parametric analysis showed significant increase in vertical displacement as the soil immediately below the footing gets saturated. The results also showed that c and ? have significant influence on the load-settlement curves under static loading.

Keywords: Tropical red soils; Static plate load test; Finite element analysis; Load-settlement curves (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://eu-opensci.org/index.php/ejeng/article/view/61475 Abstract page (text/html)
https://eu-opensci.org/index.php/ejeng/article/download/61475/12171 Full text (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:epw:ejeng0:v:4:y:2019:i:8:id:61475

DOI: 10.24018/ejeng.2019.4.8.1475

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in European Journal of Engineering and Technology Research from European Open Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Support ().