Load Settlement Behavior of Isolated Footing Near Flexible Excavation Wall in Rock Mass

This study examines the settlement behavior of an isolated footing near the excavation wall in a jointed rock mass. Physical model tests were performed using plaster of Paris (PoP) blocks of 25 mm × 25 mm × 75 mm to simulate a 750 mm × 750 mm × 150 mm artificial jointed rock mass. Furthermore, a distinct element model (DEM) was created using the universal distinct element code (UDEC) to validate the experimental observations. The current study demonstrates that the UDEC model results are in good agreement with the settlement observed in physical model tests. However, the settlement prediction of UDEC was slightly lower than the experimental results. This could be attributed to the gaps between the joints, which are present in the physical models and are ignored in DEM. The settlement for a given footing pressure in both numerical and experimental studies was higher for the excavated rock mass as compared to the unexcavated rock mass. The bearing capacity of the foundation in non-excavated rock mass was greater than excavated rock mass.