Cornel Ciurea, Diana-Caterina Mănescu, Ianis-Laurențiu Gurău
DOI: 10.2478/ouacsce-2024-0015
Pages: 127-138
Abstract – Loessoid soils are a special category amongst the continental
sedimentary formations in the quaternary era. The term “loess” comes from the german
word lose or los, used around the Rhine River region, and its meaning is loose, porous,
crumbly. Loess has high porosity due to its macropores, which are visible to the naked
eye and it is also very sensitive to humidity. This last characteristic has caused a lot of
problems in the construction and operation process of buildings; it also made loessoid
soils fit into the cathegory of very difficult terrains to build on.
Punching settlement takes place when the foundation body pierces through the
porous environment due to the breakage of its contracting macrostructure. This
penetration effect leads to the creation of a plug of material that has reduced porosity,
delimited by a contour that closes on the perimeter of the foundation surface.
Punching settlement has been studied in the past by I. Chercasov in 1967, A.
Chirică after 1990 and C. Ciurea after 1999.
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the phenomenon of punching settlement
through numerical modeling using the following calculation programs: COSMOS/M,
which uses the finite element method in various linear and nonlinear, static and dynamic
problems from various fields, and the FEM module in the GEO5 program, which is a
modern calculation program specialized in solving geotechnical engineering problems.
Keywords – COSMOS/M, FEM, foundation, GEO5, loess, macropores, punching
effect.
