5. Concluding remarks
Within the context of work-hardening plasticity models of the soil-foundation system, the paper has presented a numerical study of the embedment effects on the yield surface for a shallow foundation in sand. The numerical approach was validated based on data from centrifuge tests available in literature, across a practical range of foundation initial depth, d, mobilised vertical load, V0, and combined load paths. The comparison has proved the model able in reproducing the experimentally observed foundation response to combined loading. The study has shown that, for a shallow foundation embedded in sand:
the yield surface which is established in the load space is essentially parabolic in planes containing the V axis, with elliptical, anticlockwise rotated, sections with planes at constant V;
existing equations of the yield surface for the soil-foundation system still work well, but modifications need to be introduced to account of effects of the embedment, which are not negligible;
the extent and rotation of the normalised yield surface are function of the embedment as produced by the coupled effect of the foundation initial depth, d, and mobilised penetration, w.
