A study on Bearing Capacity of Submerged Rock Foundation

Abstract

For more urbanization, engineering structures are not limited to underground tunnels or metro stations, engineers are constructing underground multistoried building even underground city. Therefore accurate assessment of rock strength is necessary for the rational design of underground structures. Bearing capacity is one of the most important factor for assessment of rock strength. Various studies on determination of bearing capacity for intact as well as jointed rock mass have been performed. Concisely, various studies have been performed for determination of bearing capacity of rock mass under dry condition while for submerged condition, it is outnumbered. In this study, determination of submerged bearing capacity of rock mass is attempted. Most cases, the rock substratum is considered to be homogeneous, intact, but the practical scenario does not recommend so. In-situ rock mass variability renders the deterministic analysis to be inefficient and hence there arises the necessity for probabilistic or reliability analyses to model the uncertainties. Rather than calculating a deterministic factor of safety, a reliability based analysis is more appropriate for geotechnical design. Present study comprises of different aspects regarding ultimate bearing capacity of rock foundations for both dry and submerged condition. These are, development of algorithmic modelling for determination of ultimate bearing capacity for both dry and submerged condition, analysis of behavior of ultimate bearing capacity due to the effect of submergence, comparative study between theorem mechanisms and reliability analysis through Monte-Carlo simulation for various parameters of rock mass. The data generated from the mentioned aspects are represented in graphical form and histogram bar charts are developed from Monte Carlo simulation.