NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION INTO BEHAVIOUR OF WELL FOUNDATIONS DURING CONSTRUCTION

Abstract

Well foundations had their origin in India and have been used for hundreds of years, for providing deep foundation for important buildings and structures. It’s having many advantages over pile foundation. Many of monuments built during Mughal period have open cassions as their foundations. We know that Taj Mahal have got well foundation. In past 100 years or more well foundations are mainly used in constructions of bridges. Most of famous bridges in India are having open cassions as its foundation. In general well foundation is a massive concrete structure which mainly sinks in site due to its self-weight or sometimes kentledge load is also provided. But construction of well foundation is a tedious process carried out in stages and is time consuming. During the sinking of well foundation, many difficulties like tilting, shift from axis, sand blowing etc. are encountered. These may be caused due to several factors like properties or type of soil, uneven excavation, minor blasting, water force, artesian conditions etc. In this study some of the factors causing difficulties in sinking of well foundation are identified from literature reviews and a Finite Element analysis is carried out using PLAXIS 3D to identify the stresses and deformations developed in soil elements just below the well steining and how the presence of water level affect these values.