Behavior of ring footing resting on reinforced sand subjected to eccentric-inclined loading

Ring footings are suitable for the structures like tall transmission towers, chimneys, silos and oil storages. These types of structures are susceptible to horizontal loads (wind load) in addition to their dead weight. In the literature, very little or no effort has been made to study the effect of ring footing resting on reinforced sand when subjected to eccentric, inclined and/or eccentric-inclined loadings. This paper aims to study the behavior of ring footing resting on loose sand and/or compacted randomly distributed fiber-reinforced sand (RDFS) when subjected to eccentric (0B, 0.05B and 0.1B, where B is the outer diameter of ring footing), inclined (0°, 5°, 10°, 15°, −5°, −10° and −15°) and eccentric-inclined loadings by using a finite element (FE) software PLAXIS 3D. The behavior of ring footing is studied by using a dimensionless factor called reduction factor (RF). The numerical model used in the PLAXIS 3D has been validated by conducting model plate load tests. Moreover, an empirical expression using regression analysis has been presented which will be helpful in plotting a load-settlement curve for the ring footing.