Experimental and numerical investigations into the behaviour of deep foundations in sand

The thesis examines the link between the response of reconstituted sand under triaxial conditions with the cavity stress-strain characteristic measured in the pressuremeter tests and the load-settleme nt relationship measured in plate load tests. The pressuremeter and plate tests were performed in a laboratory pressure chamber whic h comprised sand that was created in an identical fashion to that in the triaxial tests.The ability of a selection of constitutive models to model the pressuremeter and footing tests in finite element analysis is also examined using constitutive parameters determined from the triaxial tests. Significant inadequacies of existing popular models are identified.