The accurate prediction of settlements of shallow foundations under operational conditions is still an open issue for both scientists and engineers, in particular in the case of complex loading conditions (e.g. combined vertical and horizontal loads). The complexity of the soil mechanical response and the difficulty in managing a multiscale problem (ranging from the local scale of the soil representative elementary volume to the macro-scale of the structure) makes a rigorous modelling of such problems particularly demanding for standard numerical tools such as three-dimensional finite-element codes. In this perspective, the well-known macroelement approach may represent a valid simplified approach, capable of overcoming these limitations and allowing a comprehensive description of both serviceability limit state and ultimate limit state of such systems, particularly useful even for practitioners. In the paper, based on a small-scale 1g experimental campaign on a strip foundation, the effect of embedment is investigated over horizontal loading paths at a constant vertical load. In particular, relatively low vertical stress values are considered for the foundations, as it often happens in real structures under usual working conditions. A simple macroelement plastic model, based on a strain hardening law with non-associated flow rule is then proposed and validated over the available experimental data.

中文翻译：

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沙地小型地基水平荷载试验试验与建模

操作条件下浅基础沉降的准确预测对于科学家和工程师来说仍然是一个悬而未决的问题，尤其是在复杂载荷条件（例如，垂直和水平载荷组合）的情况下。土壤力学响应的复杂性和管理多尺度问题（从土壤代表基本体积的局部尺度到结构的宏观尺度）的难度使得对此类问题的严格建模对标准数值工具特别苛刻，例如作为三维有限元代码。从这个角度来看，众所周知的宏观元素方法可能代表了一种有效的简化方法，能够克服这些限制并允许对此类系统的适用性极限状态和最终极限状态进行全面描述，甚至对从业者也特别有用。在论文中，基于一个小规模的 1g在条形基础上进行的实验活动，研究了在恒定垂直载荷下在水平载荷路径上的嵌入效果。特别是，地基考虑了相对较低的垂直应力值，因为它经常发生在通常工作条件下的真实结构中。然后提出了一个简单的宏观单元塑性模型，该模型基于具有非关联流动规则的应变硬化定律，并在可用的实验数据上进行了验证。