Incorporating scale effects in shallow footings in a hypoplastic macroelement model

In this work the hypoplastic macroelement for shallow foundations under six-degree-of-freedom loading conditions presented by Salciarini et al. (2011) is modified to account for observed scale effects, using data obtained from two series of small-scale model tests performed under natural and enhanced gravity (Bienen et al. 2006). The aim of the work is to develop an efficient tool for modeling the soil-footing system in complex soilfoundation-superstructure-interaction (SFSI) problems, which can be calibrated from small-scale test results. Indeed, one of the main limitations in the practical applications of the macroelement concept lies in the difficulties inherent in the identification of the model constants appearing in the constitutive equations. Comparing the 1g and the 200g test results has allowed to identify appropriate scaling laws that have been incorporated in the macroelement formulation, which demonstrates an improved capability of reproducing the experimental data.