A. R. Majidi, A.a. Mirghasemi, M. Arabshahi,
Volume 9, Issue 4 (December 2011)
In the current study, an effort is made to determine three dimensional bearing capacity of rectangular foundations using Discrete
Element Method. The soil mass is modeled as discrete blocks connected with Winkler springs. Different factors affect the geometry
of failure surface. Six independent angles are used to define the failure surface. By trial and error, the optimum shape of failure
surface beneath the foundation can be found. The paper includes the derivation of the governing equations for this DEM based
formulation in three dimensional state as well as parametric sensitivity analyses and comparison with other methods. Moreover,
using the current method, bearing capacity coefficients are presented for various friction angles and foundation aspect ratios.