In this study we investigate the development of shear zones due to the settlement of shallow foundations and their load-settlement behavior. Firstly, a well-documented experiment of shallow penetration into sand is used for the validation of the soft particle code (SPARC). For these simulations a hypoplastic material model for sand with calibration for the model sand is implemented in SPARC. In order to deliver a more comprehensive investigation, the shape of the shear zones predicted by SPARC is also compared with the analytical solution. Secondly, the penetration of shallow foundation into clay is investigated by means of SPARC and the finite element method. For this purpose, barodesy for clay with the calibration for Dresden clay is implemented in both numerical methods. The simulations are carried out for six different surcharges, corresponding to a range of over-consolidated clay to normal-consolidated clay. Furthermore, the load-settlement behavior and the shape of shear zones for both methods are compared and the weaknesses and strengths of each numerical approach are discussed. Finally, the peaks of the load-settlement curves for all surcharges are compared with the analytical solution. Results show that SPARC performs better at predicting the trajectories of particles under the foundation, which consequently leads to better estimation of the load-settlement behavior.
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