• Geotechnical Engineering
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.75-84
• /
• 1997

This paper presents a bearing capacity determination method for spread footings subjected to vertical central loading and located above underground cavities. For the development of the method, a parametric study on bearing capacity of a spread footing located above an underground cavity was performed by using a threetimensional elasto-plastic finite element computer program. From the results of the finite element analysis, bearing capacity values for the conditions analyzed were determined and used as a data base from which semiempirical equation to for the bearing capacity determination method were formulated by means of a regression analysis. The effectiveness of this method was illustrated by comparing the bearing capacity values computed from this method with those of available model footing tests as well as finite element analysis data. It was concluded that the method presented in this paper can be effectively used for practical applications at least within the conditions investigated.