Displacement Patterns beneath a Rigid Beam Indenting on Layered Soil

Often ground vehicles come across interacting with soil profiles of non-homogeneous and complex nature. In this research, the variation of failure envelopes and deformation patterns of a layered sandy soil system beneath a rigid beam under the plain-strain condition have been studied using Digital Particle Image velocimetry (DPIV). Based on the model tests of a rigid beam (width B) resting on a dense sand layer of limited thickness (H) overlaid by loose sand media, the evolution of grain-scale velocity fields and slip surfaces in the sand for different loading levels is studied. Normalised vertical displacement (Sv/B) profiles with depth (z/B) from the bottom surface of the beam at different loading levels are presented. The bearing capacity of the beam resting on the layered sandy soils is compared with the results obtained from theoretical analysis reported in the literature