The behaviour of flexible slabs on idealised and actual foundations

Smith, Ian Moffat (1967) The behaviour of flexible slabs on idealised and actual foundations. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

Due to a lack of contact between the disciplines of soil mechanics and structural engineering there is a tendency for flexible structures to be analysed under grossly simplified assumptions regarding the interaction between the structure and its soil foundation. For example, it is often assumed that the contact pressure on the base of a structure is uniform, or linearly varying. In the thesis it is proposed that the use of a digital computer enables a structure and its foundation to be analysed as a complete entity. The computer is essential because of the complexity of the mathematical formulation of the problem and because of the scale of the analysis involved. Most of the theoretical work concerns the finite element method for the analysis of structure and foundation, although some work on the finite difference method is also presented. The former method allows a more realistic approximation to be made to the inhomogeneity of soil deposits. An evaluation of current methods and some advances in the theory of the finite element method as applied to plate or slab structures are presented, culminating in an analysis incorporating the effect of transverse shear deformations on the bending of elastic plates. The theories are then applied to the evaluation of a set of experimental results obtained for circular plates bearing on a sand foundation and loaded with concentrated central loads. The classical idealisations of foundations are found to be inadequate and more realistic models are proposed for the particular plate structure and loading case examined.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Additional Information: Adviser: Hugh B Sutherland
• Keywords: Civil engineering
• Date of Award: 1967
• Depositing User: Enlighten Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:1967-72355
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 24 May 2019 15:12
• Last Modified: 24 May 2019 15:12
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/72355