Shear stresses below the rectangular foundations subjected to biaxial bending

Soils are subjected to additional stresses due to the loads transferred by the foundations of the buildings. The distribution of stress in soil has great importance in geotechnical engineering projects such as stress, settlement and liquefaction analyses. The purpose of this study is to examine the shear stresses on horizontal plane below the rectangular foundations subjected to biaxial bending on an elastic soil. In this study, closed-form analytical solutions for shear stresses in <i>x</i> and <i>y</i> directions were obtained from Boussinesq\'s stress equations. The expressions of analytical solutions were simplified by defining the shear stress influence values (<i>I</i>₁, <i>I</i>₂, <i>I</i>₃), and solution charts were presented for obtaining these values. For some special loading conditions, the expressions for shear stresses in the soil below the corners of a rectangular foundation were also given. In addition, a computer program was developed to calculate the shear stress increment at any point below the rectangular foundations. A numerical example for illustrating the use of the presented solution charts was given and, finally, shear stress isobars were obtained for the same example by a developed computer program. The shear stress expressions obtained in this work can be used to determine monotonic and cyclic behavior of soils below rectangular foundations subjected to biaxial bending.