Macroelement modeling of shallow foundations

The paper presents a new macroelement model for shallow foundations. The model is defined through a non-linear constitutive law written in terms of some generalized force and displacement parameters. The linear part of this constitutive law comes from the dynamic impedances of the foundation. The non-linear part comprises of two mechanisms. One is due to the irreversible elastoplastic soil behavior. It is described with a bounding surface hypoplastic model, adapted for the description of the cyclic soil response. An original feature of the formulation is that the bounding surface is considered independently of the surface of ultimate loads of the system. The second mechanism concerns the detachment that can take place at the soil–footing interface (foundation uplift). It is totally reversible and non-dissipative and can thus be described by a phenomenological non-linear elastic model. The macroelement model is qualitatively validated by application to soil–structure interaction analyses of simple real structures and by comparison with results from more sophisticated methods of analysis.