NUMERICAL AND FIELD STUDY ON TRIANGULAR SHELL FOOTING FOR LOW RISE BUILDING

This paper describes a study on the performance of triangular shell footings using finite element and field model test. Two shapes of triangular shells were studied, namely the ‘upright’ triangular and inverted triangular shell. Both the finite element analyses and field tests showed that the inverted triangular shell had better load carrying capacity compared with the ‘upright’ triangular shell, due to its better contact area. The triangular shell in turn proved to be more efficient in carrying load compared with the conventional flat strip footing. The load carrying capacity of shell footing was also found to increase with the increase of shell angle and thickness. The load carrying capacity of shell footing was found to increase by around 15 % when the shell thickness was increased from 10 cm to 15 cm, and increase by 20% with the increase of the shell angle from 26 to 45 degree.