International Journal of Physical Modelling International Journal of Physical Modelling in Geotechnics,

2011, 11(1), 33–49

in Geotechnics doi: 10.1680/ijpmg.2011.11.1.33
Volume 11 Issue 1 Paper 1000006
Received 16/03/2010 Accepted 06/07/2010
Rectangular footing on sand subjected to Keywords: bearing capacity/footings/foundations
double eccentric load
Bando, Izawa and Kusakabe
ICE Publishing: All rights reserved

Rectangular footing on sand

subjected to double eccentric
load
R. Bando O. Kusakabe
Tender Proposals Group, Construction Department International Division, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tokyo Institute of
Kajima Corporation, Tokyo, Japan Technology, Tokyo, Japan
J. Izawa
Earthquake and Structural Engineering, Structures Technology Division,
Railway Technical Research Institute, Tokyo, Japan

This paper describes the results of a series of loading tests of a rectangular footing, with an aspect ratio of two,
resting on dry sand and subjected to double eccentricity in a centrifuge. The results indicate that current design
practice of calculating failure load of rectangular surface footing excessively underestimates the centrifuge loading
test data. This trend is more marked when the eccentricity becomes larger. The decreasing trend in failure load with
an increase of double eccentricity is rather uniquely expressed by a single curve, using a newly defined resultant
eccentricity and the diagonal length of the footing base. Detailed measurements of progressive change in the contact
area between the footing base and the ground were made, and three-dimensional failure mechanisms were also
captured and presented for future verification of three-dimensional analysis.

Notation dv settlement (m)

B width of footing base (m) dh angle of rotation ( ˚ )
B9 effective width (5 B 2 2eB) (m) w angle of internal friction ( ˚ )
c cohesion (Pa)
e resultant eccentricity (m)
eB current eccentricity for short longitudinal direc-
1. Introduction
tion (m)
Over the last two decades, the issue of bearing capacity of
eB0 initial eccentricity for short longitudinal direction (m)
shallow footing has been studied with respect to combined
eL current eccentricity for long transverse direction loading framework from the viewpoints of both physical and
(m) numerical modelling (e.g. Butterfield and Gottardi, 1994; Nova
eL0 initial eccentricity for long transverse direction (m) and Montransio, 1991; Tan, 1990), and more recently, studies
H height of footing (m) have been extended to the problems of the bearing capacity of
L length of footing base (m) strip and/or circular footing on non-homogeneous or layered
L9 effective length (5 L 2 2eL) (m) clays under vertical, horizontal and moment loading (e.g.
M moment (N m) Bransby and Randolph, 1998; Taiebat and Carter, 2000;
Nc, Nq, Nc bearing capacity factors under pure vertical loading Takayanagi et al., 2009).
Nce, Nqe, Nce bearing capacity factors under eccentric loading
n aspect ratio of footing (5 L/B) A typical combined loading situation encountered in practical
p0 surcharge pressure (Pa) design is eccentric loading. The concept of effective width for a
Q failure load without eccentricity (N) strip footing proposed by Meyerhof (1953) has been commonly
Qe failure load under eccentricity (N) used in the analysis of foundations subjected to eccentric loading
q ultimate bearing capacity without eccentricity (Pa) (Poulos et al., 2001). The concept of effective width is applied
qe ultimate bearing capacity under eccentricity (Pa) when the bearing capacity of a strip footing with a width of B
w diagonal length of footing base (m) subjected to an eccentrically applied vertical loading with the
V vertical load (N) eccentricity of e is assumed to be equivalent to the bearing
Vu failure vertical load under pure vertical loading (N) capacity of another strip footing with a fictitious effective width
c unit weight of soil (N/m3) B9 (where B9 5 B 2 2e) on which the vertical load is centrally
dh horizontal displacement (m) applied. For the case of strip footing on sand, this effective width

33
International Journal of Physical Modelling in Geotechnics
Volume 11 Issue 1
concept can be expressed in terms of failure envelope in vertical
load (V) moment (M) space as M/B 5 0?5V{1 2 (V/Vu)0?5},
where Vu is the failure vertical load under pure vertical loading,
and V is the vertical failure load with eccentricity.
Meyerhof (1953) extended the effective width concept to the
effective area concept for a rectangular footing of length L and
width B with double eccentricity, eL and eB on the major axes
by finding the minimum effective contact area with a straight
boundary across the footing base such that its centroid
coincides with that of the load. The effective contact areas
are, thus, assumed to have either a trapezoidal or triangular
shape under double eccentricity.
Some current design specifications (e.g. Japan Road Association,
2002) conveniently modify the original Meyerhof’s effective area
in such a way that the contact area remains a rectangular shape
with the effective length L9 (5 L 2 2eL) and the effective width
B9(5 B 2 2eB), as shown in Figure 1.
For a circular footing, Kobayashi and Sekiguchi (1997) derived
plastic solutions of ultimate bearing capacity of a circular footing
on a homogeneous clay layer subjected to eccentric loading by
using upper- and lower-bound theorems, which bracket the failure
loads experimentally derived by Houlsby and Martin (1993).
The effective width concept has been well supported by various
experimental results, mainly for single eccentricity, both under
gravitational and centrifugal acceleration fields as a conservative
hypothesis (Eastwood, 1955; Georgiadis and Butterfield, 1988;
Jumikis, 1956; Kitazume, 1984; Kitazume and Ikeda, 1993;
Meyerhof, 1953; Musso and Ferlisi, 2009; Okamura et al., 2002;
eL
B with a load cell measurement.
eB
B'
L'
L
Figure 1. Illustration of effective area concept with length L9
(5 L 2 2eL) and width B9 (5 B22eB) (Japan Road Association, 2002)
34
Rectangular footing on sand
subjected to double eccentric
load
Bando, Izawa and Kusakabe
Prakash and Saran, 1971; Purkayastha and Char, 1977; Terashi
et al., 1984). Thus it seems that there exist no practical questions
regarding the evaluation of ultimate bearing capacity as far as
strip footing with single eccentricity is concerned. It has been
reported, however, that two types of failure mode have been
observed: failure occurs either (a) on the side of the eccentricity of
the load (Eastwood, 1955; Meyerhof, 1953; Purkayastha and
Char, 1977) or (b) on the opposite side of the eccentricity of the
load (Jumikis, 1956; Kitazume, 1984) as is illustrated in Figure 2.
Kitazume (1984) suggested that the restriction of horizontal
footing movement may be a possible reason for the occurrence
of the two types of failure mode by conducting centrifuge tests
and finite-element method (FEM) analyses. Kitazume and
Ikeda (1993) performed two further types of loading tests in a
centrifuge, one with a horizontal restriction and the other
without restriction by monitoring the horizontal force generated
at the footing base during loading. They observed that the
footing tends to displace horizontally towards the side of
eccentricity as well as settle vertically when the horizontal force
is kept zero. When the horizontal movement is restricted, the
horizontal force towards the centre of the footing is generated at
the base of the footing to compensate for the restriction and the
ultimate bearing capacity reduction is about 10% larger than
that achieved without restriction. Hence the failure mode was
considerably affected by the horizontal restriction. When the
horizontal movement is restricted, the failure surface predomi-
nantly occurs on the opposite side of the eccentricity. When the
footing is free to move horizontally, the failure surface develops
towards the side of the eccentricity with a smaller failure surface
on the opposite side. Another interesting observation is that the
residual bearing capacity is almost the same, regardless of the
value of eccentricity for the case without horizontal restriction,
whereas the residual bearing capacity is approximately propor-
tional to the ultimate bearing capacity for the case with the
restriction. Considering the observation by Kitazume and Ikeda
(1993), care must be exercised when reappraisal of the previous
data is made, since loading systems with a proving ring for
measuring the applied load may be considered more flexible in
the horizontal direction, compared with modern loading systems
More recently, Musso and Ferlisi (2009) presented the data of
loading tests of a strip footing on a saturated dense sand under
single eccentricity, using a downwards steady-state seepage
technique, and found that the type A failure mode was
observed at lower effective stress levels under smaller
eccentricity, while the type B failure mode tended to occur at
higher effective stress levels under larger eccentricity.
Compared with a number of experimental studies, studies of
theoretical verification for the effective width concept are
International Journal of Physical Modelling in Geotechnics
Volume 11 Issue 1
Type A failure mode
(Meyerhof, 1953; Eastwood, 1955;
Purkayastha and Char, 1977)
Figure 2. Two types of failure mode (Kitazume, 1984)
limited. As far as the authors are aware, only work by Narita
and Yamaguchi (1988) analytically derived Meyerhof’s concept
of effective width for strip footing. Jumikis (1956) carefully
examined the failure surface of footing under eccentricity, which
agrees remarkably well with a single logarithmic spiral. Narita
and Yamaguchi assumed that the failure surface is expressed by
a single logarithmic spiral, and calculated the bearing capacity
factors, Nc, Nq and Nc separately. They came up with the
following relationships of the bearing capacity factors, Nc and
Nc, between the central loading and eccentric loading conditions
1. Nce ðeccentric loadingÞ~mNc ðcentral loadingÞ
2. Nce ðeccentric loadingÞ~m2 Nc ðcentral loadingÞ
where m denotes (B 2 2e)/B.
For Nq, they numerically derived the following approximation
for the cases of w § 20 ˚
:
3. Nqe ðeccentric loadingÞ ¼: mNq ðcentral loadingÞ
The subscript e for the bearing capacity factors refers to those
under eccentric loading.
Combining Equations 1, 2 and 3, they concluded that the
failure load under eccentric load, Qe, is expressed as
 
Qe ~ cNce zp0 Nqe zcNce B=2 B
:  
4. ¼: cmNc zp0 mNq zc m2 Nc B=2 B
 
~ cNc zp0 Nq zcNc B’=2 B’
Rectangular footing on sand
subjected to double eccentric
load
Bando, Izawa and Kusakabe
Type B failure mode
(Jumikis, 1956; Kitazume, 1984)
where c , w and c are the cohesion, the angle of internal friction
and the unit weight of soil respectively, p0 is the surcharge
pressure and B9 5 B 2 2e.
Equation 4 is in fact the Meyerhof’s effective width concept.
Narita and Yamaguchi (1988) also proved that the failure
modes A and B shown in Figure 2 give the same ultimate
bearing capacity based on the logarithmic spiral failure mode.
The literature review reveals that, apart from the experiments
by Meyerhof (1953), very limited information regarding double
eccentricity is available, which is essentially three-dimensional
in nature. A series of centrifuge tests was conducted on a
rectangular footing on dry sand with double eccentricity.
Special considerations were made to capture detailed three-
dimensional failure modes together with the measurement of
the progressive change in contact area between the footing base
and the current ground surface.
2. Centrifuge tests
A series of centrifuge tests was conducted using the mark III
centrifuge of the Tokyo Institute of Technology (Takemura
et al., 1999). Model grounds were prepared in a circular steel
container of dimensions 586 mm diameter and 400 mm deep.
Air-dried Toyoura sand was used to make the model ground
200 mm deep with a target relative density of 80% by the air
pluviation method. Table 1 summarises the properties of
Toyoura sand. There are three reasons for selecting the air-
dried sand for this study
(a) to achieve the consistent production of model ground by
the air pluviation method,
(b) to avoid any ambiguity in estimating an apparent
35
International Journal of Physical Modelling in Geotechnics Rectangular footing on sand
Volume 11 Issue 1 subjected to double eccentric
load
Bando, Izawa and Kusakabe

Average particle size D50: mm 0?190 has a 7 mm diameter semi-circular shape to create the
Maximum void ratio emax 0?973 rotational free condition. Figure 3 shows the model footing
Minimum void ratio emin 0?609 with a numbering sequence for the loading points.
Uniformity coefficient Uc 1?62
0
Coefficient of curvature Uc 1?05 The loading system used consists of a 5 ton capacity actuator
Void ratio at Dr 5 80% E 0?682 driven by a 200 W motor and a supporting H beam frame which
Dry unit weight at Dr 5 80% cd: kN/m3 15?4 is firmly bolted on the web of the circular container. Therefore the
Internal friction angle at Dr 5 80% w: ˚ * 40?4 loading point is restricted from horizontal displacement. Vertical
load was measured by a load cell of 20 kN capacity attached to
*w was obtained from drained triaxial tests. the loading rod. Vertical settlements of the footing were measured
by a potentiometer attached to the loading rod. Horizontal
Table 1. Properties of Toyoura sand displacements of the footing were measured by two laser
displacement gauges at different elevations in the diagonal
directions: front and side of the footing, from which the complete
cohesion in the moist sand which would partly contribute three-dimensional movement of the footing can be captured. The
to the bearing capacity vertical movement of the ground surface was also monitored by a
(c) to avoid the direct comparison against the previous test number of potentiometers located around the footing.
results on dry sand.
The model footing was loaded under the centrifugal accelera-
A 691 g mass rectangular model footing was made of tion of 50 g. The loading rate of 5?0 mm/min was selected after
duralumin and has the dimensions of H 50 mm high, B comparing the load–settlement curve of the loading rate of
50 mm wide, and L 100 mm long, giving the aspect ratio (n 5 L/ 0?5 mm/min and that of 5?0 mm/min, which follow almost an
B) of 2. The footing thus is considered rigid. Sandpaper was identical load–settlement curve. Figure 4(a) presents a photo-
glued to the base of the footing to simulate the rough footing graph of the mark III centrifuge with the test model mounted
base condition. No attempt was made to vary the interface on, and Figure 4(b) illustrates the model ground with the
coefficient between the soil and the bottom surface of the loading system and measurement arrangements.
footing in this study.
A particular emphasis was placed on observing the detailed
A grid of 8 mm diameter semi-circular indents was made on the three-dimensional failure surfaces after the loading test, by
top surface of the footing with a spacing of 15 mm for the vertically dissecting the model ground at various sections to
longer axis of footing and 10 mm for the shorter axis, which establish the failure surface. In order to do this, the top 100 mm
provide the contact points with a loading rod, of which the tip of the model ground layer consisted of alternative layers of
5 mm thick coloured Toyoura sand and 5 mm thick original
15 15 15 15 15 15 Toyoura sand for the three cases 15, 16 and 17 (see Table 2).
Plan view After the loading test, some water was introduced to the model
10 ground under the gravitational acceleration through the
10
bottom of the container up to the top surface of the ground
4A 3A 2A 1A
50 and then the water was allowed to drain out of the container to
10 3B 2B 1B
4B generate an apparent cohesion in the model ground to keep the
10
4C 3C 2C 1C vertical cut face stable. A series of photographs was taken at
each vertical section. Figure 5 presents the locations of the
100 observed sections with views of a typical dissected section.
Together with the data of the vertical movement of the ground
Side view surface, three-dimensional failure modes can be established.
Table 2 summarises the test programme with the test code, of
50
which e will be defined later.

Material: Duralumin 3. Results and discussion

Mass: 691 g Unit: mm
3.1 Analysis of data
Figure 3. Model footing and loading point Figure 6 shows notations and conventions used in this paper:
V is vertical load, M is moment, dv is vertical displacement, dh

36
International Journal of Physical Modelling in Geotechnics Rectangular footing on sand
Volume 11 Issue 1 subjected to double eccentric
load
Bando, Izawa and Kusakabe

Loading jack

Load cell
Potentiometer
LDT
30

200

Toyoura sand
Dr = 80%

40 40 5 3515 80 50 50

35
20 Potentiometer
25
measurement
25
25 point
500 25 LDT
25
40
LDT
(Laser displacement transducer)

(Unit: mm)
500
(a) (b)

Figure 4. Model ground with the loading system and

measurement arrangements

is horizontal displacement and dh is angle of rotation measured Also, the diagonal length of the rectangular footing base was
from the vertical axis. used to normalise eccentricity.
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
In order to consider single and double eccentricity in a unified 6. w~ B2 zL2
manner, a new index for eccentricity, termed resultant
eccentricity hereafter, is defined as
Although there may be other alternative reference lengths for
rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
e 2 e 2ffi
B L normalising eccentricity, the diagonal length of the footing, w,
5. e~w z was selected in this study based on the observations on the
B L
extent of the failure zone, as will be presented later.

37
International Journal of Physical Modelling in Geotechnics Rectangular footing on sand
Volume 11 Issue 1 subjected to double eccentric
load
Bando, Izawa and Kusakabe

Test code Loading point eB: mm eL: mm ē: mm Dr: % Coloured sand layer

Case 1 1A 0 0 0?0 80?4 NA

Case 2 1A 0 0 0?0 80?1 NA
Case 3 1B 10 0 22?4 79?4 NA
Case 4 1C 20 0 44?7 81?1 NA
Case 5 2A 0 15 16?8 78?9 NA
Case 6 2B 10 15 28?0 78?3 NA
Case 7 2C 20 15 48?1 78?3 NA
Case 8 3A 0 30 33?5 82?7 NA
Case 9 3B 10 30 40?2 81?4 NA
Case 10 3C 20 30 55?9 78?3 NA
Case 11 4A 0 45 50?3 79?2 NA
Case 12 4B 10 45 54?8 80?5 NA
Case 13 4C 20 45 67?1 81?3 NA
Case 14 4C 20 45 67?1 80?1 NA
Case 15 1C 20 0 44?7 76?1 #
Case 16 4A 0 45 50?3 80?5 #
Case 17 4C 20 45 67?1 82?5 #

Table 2. Test programme

The footing starts rotating when the eccentric load is applied and tests for various cases. As can be seen in the figure, the value of e
the loading point projected onto the footing base changes as the almost linearly increases from the onset of the loading, as the
loading proceeds. As is illustrated in Figure 7, the rotations of the settlement increases at the rate de=dv of 0?0791–0?158 mm/mm.
footing were calculated from the data of the horizontal displace-
ments at two different elevations in the two diagonal directions as In order to examine the effective width concept, the information
  regarding the contact area is of importance. Prakash and Saran
dhL2 {dhL1 (1971) adopted a simple method for calculating the contact
hL ~ tan
d width, assuming that the footing settles uniformly. This is not
7.   always the case for eccentric loading. Using the data of current
dhB2 {dhB1
hB ~ tan vertical settlement dv and the horizontal displacements dhL1,
d
dhL2, dhB1 and dhB2, the equation of the plane of the footing base
for a given loading step i is expressed in the three-dimensional
coordinates shown in Figure 6 by the following equation
The current actual eccentricity for a given loading stage was
calculated by
10.
sinhLi coshBi xzcoshLi sinhBi y
eL ~ eL0 H tanhL
8.
eB ~ eB0 H tanhB
10. {coshLi coshBi zzðH{dvi ÞcoshLi coshBi
where eL0 and eB0 are the initial (nominal) eccentricities.
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
zH sin2 hLi cos2 hBi zcos2 hLi sin2 hBi zcos2 hLi cos2 hBi ~0
The current actual moment M at a given loading stage is
calculated by
The intersection between the plane of the footing base at the
(i)th loading step and that of (i + 1) loading step provides
M L ~ eL V information on the border of the contact area with the ground
9.
M B ~ eB V and the uplifted area from the ground.

3.2 Load–settlement curve

Figure 8 shows the difference between the actual and nominal Figure 9 shows two pairs of load–settlement curves for cases 1
eccentricity in terms of resultant eccentricity, de, during loading and 2 (loading point A1, central loading) and cases 13 and 14

38
International Journal of Physical Modelling in Geotechnics Rectangular footing on sand
Volume 11 Issue 1 subjected to double eccentric
load
Bando, Izawa and Kusakabe

5 mm interval 10 mm interval

4A

5 mm
interval

10 mm
interval

(a)

4C

5 mm
interval

10 mm
interval

(b)

Figure 5. Locations of the observed sections with a view of typical

dissected section

(4C, eccentric loading) to confirm the repeatability of the test
with satisfactory results. Figure 10 shows the load–settlement
curves for the cases of single eccentricity (case 5 (2A), case 8
(3A), case 11 (4A), case 3 (1B) and case 4 (1C)) together with
the case of central loading (case 1 (1A)) for comparison. The
settlements were normalised by either the footing width B or
the footing length L, depending on the direction of the
eccentricity. The observation that the failure load, the vertical
stiffness and the settlement at failure decrease as the
eccentricity increases is consistent with the previous centrifuge
loading tests (Kitazume and Ikeda, 1993; Okamura et al.,
2002). Terashi et al. (1984) gathered the previous model test
data of the eccentric loading together with their own centrifuge
test data and presented the whole data of the ratio of ultimate
bearing capacity under eccentricity (qe) and that of without
eccentricity (q) against e/B. Figure 11 is a similar plot but in
terms of the ratio of failure load under eccentricity (Qe) to that
of without eccentricity (Q). The data of Terashi et al. (1984),
Okamura et al. (2002) and the present study are presented in
Figure 11. The solid line in Figure 11 is Meyerhof’s hypothesis

39
International Journal of Physical Modelling in Geotechnics Rectangular footing on sand
Volume 11 Issue 1 subjected to double eccentric
load
Bando, Izawa and Kusakabe

dhL
V
dv dhB
ML

MB

H
dhB

dhL
z
L
y
B x

Figure 6. Notations and conventions

L B

dhL1 dhB1

d d
dhL2 dhB2
θL θB

dhL2 - dhL1 dhB2 - dhB1

Figure 7. Definitions of rotations of the footing calculated from

the horizontal displacements

0
0
1A
Case 1
Case 2
Settlement, dv: mm
Settlement, dv: mm

–5

−10
_ 4C
Case 6, 2B (e/w = 0·25)
_ Case 13
–10 Case 7, 2C (e/w = 0·43)
_ Case 14
Case 9, 3B (e/w = 0·36)
_
Case 10, 3C (e/w = 0·50)
_
Case 11, 4A (e/w = 0·45)
−20
0 10 20
–15
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Load, V: kN
_
de: mm

Figure 9. Confirmation of the repeatability for 1A (central loading)

Figure 8. Change in resultant eccentricity during loading tests and 4C (eccentric loading)

40
International Journal of Physical Modelling in Geotechnics Rectangular footing on sand
Volume 11 Issue 1 subjected to double eccentric
load
Bando, Izawa and Kusakabe

0
1A
1B (eB/B = 0·20)
1C (eB/B = 0·40)
Settlement, dv: mm

2A (eL/L = 0·15)
3A (eL/L = 0·30)
−10 4A (eL/L = 0·45)

−20
0 10 20
Load, V: kN

Figure 10. Load–settlement curves for the single eccentricity cases

(2A, 3A, 4A, 1B and 1C) with 1A

qe/q 5 (1 2 2e/B)2 for strip footing. Two observations can be Figure 13 presents the decreasing trend of failure load with the
made from the figure: first of all, Meyerhof’s hypothesis is increase of the resultant eccentricity. The regression curve for
conservative, and second the data of rectangular footing with a the line is found to be
smaller aspect ratio deviate more from the solid line presenting
   2
Meyerhof’s hypothesis. Qe e e
13. ~1:00{2:12 z1:04
Q w w
The second observation from the figure may be interpreted by
introducing the shape factor for Nc for rectangular footing
(Hansen, 1970) as For practical use, equation (13) may be modified as

B  
11. Sr ~1{0:4 Qe e 2
L 14. ~ 1{
Q w

The ratio of ultimate bearing capacity of rectangular footing

on dry sand under single eccentricity to that under central Table 3 compares the observed failure load with the calculated
loading can be expressed in the form of value by using the current design practice for double
eccentricity (Japan Road Association, 2002) with the following

Qe  eB 2 n{0:4z0:8ðeB =BÞ bearing capacity factors, together with the shape factor of the
12. ~ 1{2 equation (11)
Q B n{0:4
 
where n 5 L/B. The lines for n 5 1, 3 and 5 are also plotted in 15. Nc &2 Nq z1 tan w
Figure 11, suggesting that Meyerhof’s hypothesis gives more
conservative predictions for rectangular footing and this trend  
is more marked as the aspect ratio decreases, although the w
16. Nq ~expðp tanwÞtan2 450 z
equation (12) still remains on the safe side. 2

For the cases of double eccentricity (case 6 (2B), case 7 (2C),

case 9 (3B), case 10 (3C), case 12 (4B) and case 14 (4C)), the
load–settlement curves are presented in Figure 12. The
settlements are normalised by the diagonal length of the
footing w. The figure also illustrates that the failure load and
the vertical stiffness decrease as the newly defined resultant
eccentricity, e, increases, even for the double eccentricity.
Figure 14 shows the loading paths and the failure envelope in
the moment–vertical load space for single eccentricity and
double eccentricity. The upper half of the figure shows MB/
B–V space and the lower half presents ML/L–V space. The
solid curve in Figure 14 is the failure envelope by Meyerhof’s
hypothesis M/B 5 0?5V[1 2 (V/Vu)0?5]. For the case of single

41
International Journal of Physical Modelling in Geotechnics Rectangular footing on sand
Volume 11 Issue 1 subjected to double eccentric
load
Bando, Izawa and Kusakabe

1
Terashi et al. (1984)
Lateral displacement fixed
Lateral displacement free

0.8 Okamura et al. (2002) B = 3·0 m

L/B = 1
L/B = 3
L/B = 5
Present data
0.6 Shorter axis
Longer axis
Qe/Q

0.4

n=1
0.2 n=3
n=5
Strip footing
((1 _ 2e/B)2)

0 0·1 0·2 0·3 0·4 0·5

e/B

Figure 11. Relationships between eccentricity and failure load

0
1A (e/W = 0)
1B (e/W = 0·20)
2B (e/W = 0·25)
Settlement, dv: mm

3B (e/W = 0·36)
1C (e/W = 0·40)
_10 2C (e/W = 0·43)
4B (e/W = 0·49)
3C (e/W = 0·50)
4C (e/W = 0·60)

_20
0 10 20

Load, V: kN

Figure 12. Load–settlement curves for the double eccentricity

cases (2B, 2C, 3B, 3C, 4B and 4C)

eccentricity (case 11(4A)), the MB is a dominant moment
component with very little ML component, as it should be. For
the cases of double eccentricity (case 6(2B), case 7(2C), case
9(3B) and case 10 (3C)), all the load paths exceed the failure
envelope in both the MB and ML directions.
Figure 14 is an aspect of the data presented in a framework
of macro-element, in which two separate axes of moment
component are needed for the case of double eccentricity.
There might be also a rotational component owing to
asymmetric earth pressures and shear forces acting on each
side wall of the footing, when the footing with embedment is
subjected to double eccentricity, which would require more
additional axes to present the load paths than the conventional
three axes of vertical load, V, moment, M/B and horizontal
load, H.

42
International Journal of Physical Modelling in Geotechnics Rectangular footing on sand
Volume 11 Issue 1 subjected to double eccentric
load
Bando, Izawa and Kusakabe

1·0 Failure load: kN

Loading Experiment/
point Experiment Calculated calculated
0·8

1A 17?5 9?09 1?93

0·6 2
1B 11?4 3?60 3?17
Qe e
= 1_ 1C 5?63 0?44 12?9
Qe/Q

Q w
2A 12?9 5?68 2?27
0·4
2B 10?3 2?37 4?34
2
2C 5?41 0?30 18?0
0·2 Qe = 1·00 _ 2·12 e + 1·04 e 3A 7?56 2?47 3?06
Q w w
3B 6?49 1?15 5?67
3C 3?91 0?164 23?9
0 0·2 0·4 0·6 4A 2?71 0?209 13?0
Resultant eccentricity, e/w 4B 4?13 0?118 34?9
4C 1?87 0?027 68?6

Figure 13. Relationship between failure load and the

Table 3. Comparison between the observed failure load and the
resultant eccentricity
calculated value

3.3 Moment–rotation relationship
Figure 15 shows the applied moment M and the angles of
rotation of the footing in the two directions for case 11 (4A)
with single eccentricity of eL/L 5 0?45. At the failure load, the
angle of rotation hL reached 6?5 ˚ while hB shows only 2 ˚. For
the cases of double eccentricity (case 6(2B) and case 7(2C)), the
angles of rotation in the larger eccentricity in both cases reach
about 6?5 ˚ at failure load, the same order of magnitude as for
the case of single eccentricity, but the difference between the
angle of rotation at failure load in the two directions becomes
smaller as is seen in Figure 16. It is also interesting to note that
the moment stiffness of the two cases is approximately the
same for each direction, and that the moment stiffness in the
longer axis of the footing, ML, is about twice that in the shorter
axis, MB.
3.4 Contact area
Using equation (10) the progressive changes of contact area at
various stages of the loading, 30%, 60%, 80% and 100% of the
failure load are presented for the case of single eccentricity,
case 11(4A)) in Figure 17(a). Since there was a small moment
component in MB in the case of case 11(4A), as was seen in
Figure 15, the contact area at 30% failure load is not a perfect
rectangular shape but trapezoidal. The cross-sectional area
decreases with increasing vertical load. This may be compared
by Meyerhof’s hypothesis shown in the shaded zone, which is

2B Single eccentricity
2C 4A
2 3B
3C
Double eccentricity
Moment, MB/B, ML/L

MB/B
Failure envelope 3B
0 4A 3C
2C 2B
ML/L
2C
3C
2 4A 2B
3B

0 5 10
Load, V: kN

Figure 14. Loading paths and the failure envelope for single
eccentricity and double eccentricity

43
International Journal of Physical Modelling in Geotechnics
Volume 11 Issue 1
200
Moment, MB, ML: kN mm
100
4A
eB/B = 0
eL/L = 0·45
(MB − hB)
(ML − hL)
0
0 5 10
Rotation, hB, hL: degrees
Figure 15. Applied moments M and the angles of rotation of the
footing in the two directions for 4A
significantly smaller than the observed contact area at the
failure load. Figure 17(b) presents similar data for the case of
double eccentricity, case 7(2C). Even at 30% peak load, the
contact area becomes a trapezoidal shape. After that there is
little change in the contact shape and area when the vertical
load continues to increase. The dotted line in the figure is the
effective contact area used in the current design practice for
comparison (Japan Road Association, 2002). Figure 18 shows
the percentage of the contact area to the total footing base area
with an increase of moment applied for three cases (case 7(2C),
case 10(3C) and case 11(4A)). The general trend is that the
contact area progressively decreases by 20 to 50% of the initial
contact area until about 50% of the maximum moment, and
then shows little change with some fluctuation. The fluctuation
may stem from the sensitivity of the equation (10). The direct
measurement of the contact stresses at the footing base may be
an alternative option in identifying the contact area (e.g.
Shirato et al., 2008).
3.5 Ground deformation and failure surfaces
Figure 19 shows the plan view of the extent of the zone of
failure that appeared at the ground surface determined by
visual observation as well as the surface movement measured
by the potentiometers for the cases of single eccentricity (case
3(1B), case 4(1C), case 5(2A) and case 11(4A)). Generally, it is
said that the area of failure zone decreases as the eccentricity
increases, as was implied by the failure load. The failure zone
starts from the right-side corners of the footing for case 3 (1B)
and case 4 (1C), whereas the failure zone develops from the
bottom corners for case 11 (4A). For these three cases, the
predominant axis of the zone of failure almost coincides with
the direction of eccentricity. In contrast, the failure zone for
case 5 (2A) exhibits a more three-dimensional mode; the failure
44
Rectangular footing on sand
subjected to double eccentric
load
Bando, Izawa and Kusakabe
200
2B
eB/B = 0.2
Moment, MB, ML: kN mm
eL/L = 0.15
(MB _ hB)
(ML _ hL)
100
2C
eB/B = 0.4
eL/L = 0.15
(MB _ hB)
(ML _ hL)
15 0
0 5 10 15
Rotation, hB, hL: degrees
Figure 16. Applied moments M and the angles of rotation of the
footing in the two directions for 2B and 2C
zone develops from the upper left corner of the footing and
ends at the lower right corner. Figure 20 presents the zone of
failure for double eccentricity (case 7(2C), case 10(3C) and case
13(4C)). Once again it is confirmed that the zone of failure
becomes smaller with increasing eccentricity. All of the failure
zones start at the two edges: one from the lower right corner of
the footing and the other from the upper left corner. This
suggests therefore that the diagonal length of the footing, w,
may be an index of the extent of the failure zone at least for
double eccentricity.
From a series of photographs, the coordinates of points of
discontinuity clearly identified by the coloured layer were read
for various sections shown in Figure 5 and a program called
AVS express 7?2 was used to compile the measured data and
visualise the three-dimensional failure mode for case 16 (4A)
for single eccentricity and case 17 (4C) for double eccentricity,
as are given in Figures 21(a) and (b). Type B failure mode is
clearly seen in Figure 21(a) for single eccentricity. However,
the failure mode of rectangular footing is really three-
dimensional in nature. The zone of heave shown in light grey
is observed on the no eccentricity direction as well as on the
opposite side of eccentricity. The failure mode for double
eccentricity is more complicated, as is seen in Figure 21(b). The
zone of heave first appears around the footing and then occurs
slightly away from the footing as the footing further settles.
This kind of progressive nature of the failure mechanism has
been reported earlier (Eastwood, 1955). The experimentally
observed three-dimensional failure mode presented here
provides an opportunity for people to compare their numerical
results, such as three-dimensional FEM analysis of bearing
capacity (Evans and Griffiths, 2005).
International Journal of Physical Modelling in Geotechnics Rectangular footing on sand
Volume 11 Issue 1 subjected to double eccentric
load
Bando, Izawa and Kusakabe

30% 60%

80%

0 Effective area based on

Japan Road Association
specification (2002)
Contact area
Settlement, dv : mm

_5
Loading point

Failure
_10

_15
0 1 2 3 4
Load, V: kN

(a)

30% 60%

80%

0
Effective area based on
Japan Road Association
_2 specification (2002)
Contact area
Settlement, dv : mm

_4 Loading point

_6 Failure

_8

_10
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Load, V: kN

(b)

Figure 17. Change in sectional area of the contact area:

(a) 4A single eccentricity; (b) 2C double eccentricity

45
International Journal of Physical Modelling in Geotechnics Rectangular footing on sand
Volume 11 Issue 1 subjected to double eccentric
load
Bando, Izawa and Kusakabe

100 4. Conclusions
A series of centrifuge tests was conducted on a rectangular
to the total footing base area: %
Percentage of the contact area

80
footing with double eccentricity, with dry sand on a rough
footing base. The following conclusions can be derived from
this study.
60

(a) Reappraisal of previous experimental data for single

40 eccentricity revealed that the effective width concept for
4A (eB/B = 0·0, eL/L = 0·45)
strip footing gives a conservative estimate of ultimate
20 2C (eB/B = 0·4, eL/L = 0·15) bearing capacity, and that the data for rectangular
3C (eB/B = 0·4, eL/L = 0·30) footing deviate from the effective width concept for strip
footing as the aspect ratio of rectangular footing becomes
0
0 0·2 0·4 0·6 0·8 1·0 smaller. This tendency was interpreted by introducing the
Qe/Qe-failure Hansen’s shape factor.
(b) The conventional design formula for rectangular footing
Figure 18. Progress of the contact area for 4A, 2C and 3C under double eccentricity excessively underestimates the

Failure Loading
zone point
200 1B
1C
2A
4A
100
Footing

0
Plan view
_100 0 100 200 300 (mm)

Figure 19. Zone of failure appeared at the ground surface for 1B,
1C, 2A and 4A

Failure Loading
200 zone point
2C
3C
4C

100 Footing

0
Plan view
_100 0 100 200 300 (mm)

Figure 20. Zone of failure appeared at the ground surface for 2C,
3C and 4C

46
International Journal of Physical Modelling in Geotechnics Rectangular footing on sand
Volume 11 Issue 1 subjected to double eccentric
load
Bando, Izawa and Kusakabe

Vertical disp.: mm

10.80

8.40

5.96

3.52

1.08

_1.36

_3.80

_6.24

_8.68

_11.10

_13.60

_16.00

_18.40

_20.90

_23.30

(a)

Vertical disp.: mm
7.15

5.01

4.48

3.15

1.82

0.49

_0.84

_2.18

_3.51

_4.84

_6.17

_7.50

_8.84

_10.20

_11.50

(b)

Figure 21. Three-dimensional visualisation of failure mode: (a)

single eccentricity case 16 (4A); (b) double eccentricity case 17 (4C)
47
International Journal of Physical Modelling in Geotechnics
Volume 11 Issue 1
failure load for the case of aspect ratio of 2. This tendency
is more marked when the eccentricity becomes larger.
(c) The decrease in failure load owing to double eccentricity
is reasonably well expressed by an experimentally derived
equation, Qe =Q~ð1{e=wÞ2 , where e is the newly defined
resultant eccentricity and w is the diagonal length of
rectangular footing.
(d) The measured contact areas decrease with increasing
applied load up to about a half of the failure load, but
remain 50–80% of the initial contact area until failure load.
(e) Three-dimensional failure mode was successfully cap-
tured and presented by using AVS express 7?2, which
provides a better chance to examine the verification of
three-dimensional numerical analyses.
Acknowledgements
The authors sincerely thank Mr S. Seki for his support
throughout the centrifuge tests and to Mr A. Arai and Mr T.
Yamazaki for their help during data analysis. Professor M.
Kitazume provided the authors with valuable information on
the subject and discussions with him were helpful in preparing
the paper.
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