An innovation for flat traditional conventional footing

Since their inception in the 1950s, shell foundations have grown in popularity over regular ones. In this paper, the ultimate load capacities of shell foundations on clay were determined by Numerical model tests. The results were compared with those for flat foundations with the same base. The model test results were found using finite element analysis using the program PLAXIS 2D. The experimental studies indicated that the ultimate load capacity of shell footing on clay is higher than that on flat-footing and the load settlement curves were significantly modified. The shell foundation over clay can be considered a good method to decrease the resulting settlement and material consumption at different thicknesses. Also, the rupture surface of the shell upright and inverted system was significantly deeper than both normal footings. The numerical analysis helps in understanding the deformation behavior of the studied systems and identifies the failure surface of upright and inverted shell footing.