Bearing Capacity of Footings on Rock Masses Using Flow Laws
The influence of the non-associative flow law on the bearing capacity of shallow foundations on rock masses is, in general, a subject that is not discussed in the field of rock mechanics. The calculation methods of bearing capacity usually do not define which flow law is adopted and, in some methods, the associative flow rule is assumed without knowing how that hypothesis influences the bearing capacity of the rock mass. In this paper, the study of the influence of the dilatancy angle on the bearing capacity of shallow foundations on rock masses is presented. The variation of the bearing capacity with the associative flow law and the non-associative flow law with zero dilatancy angle is studied using the finite difference method and by considering the influence of the self-weight of rock material. The calculations confirm the great influence of the flow law on the bearing capacity and a correction coefficient is proposed, which makes it possible to estimate the variation of the bearing capacity of the rock mass in terms of the function of the flow law for the hypothesis of weightless rock masses.