GGU-FOOTING: "Footing details" menu item

Depending on the analysis mode and the safety factor concept selected, you will see a modified dialog box for input of footing sizes and/or stresses (see Worked examples, Sections “Define footings (Example 1)”, etc.).

The following dialog box opens in the "Rectangular footing" analysis mode using partial safety factors:

Enter the dimensions and stresses for the footing. According to the partial safety factor concept, you can define differing stresses for permanent and changeable loads (live loads). Instead of the footing analysis diagram seen in the "Multiple footings" analysis mode a plan view of a pad footing (rectangle or circle/annulus) is shown with the loading values, among other things.

The friction angle of the soil at the footing base is adopted when analysing the sliding resistance of a pad footing (rectangle or circle/annulus). Any user-defined angle can be adopted by activating the "Sliding resistance with user-defined angle" check box. This can be useful if soils with a low friction angle are prevalent below the base of the footing, for example.

GGU-FOOTING can also analyse the torsional stiffnesses of footings. Circular or annular footings are often used for the foundations of wind energy converters. In this program version a circular/annular footing can be selected by going to the menu item "Edit/Analysis options". In this menu item you are then presented with a correspondingly modified dialog box for defining the footing (see "Define footing (Example 3)").

In older program versions it was possible to convert the circular or annular footing data to a square footing (see dialog box above) to determine the torsional stiffnesses for a rectangular footing by pressing the "Equivalent width from circle/annulus" button in the above dialog box.