Numerical study on load-settlement relationships of shallow foundation under extremely low confining pressure

In order to investigate the ground behavior under shallow foundation with extremely low confining pressure, numerical analysis has been performed using the Material Point Method. Material Point Method is one of particle-based methods but it still uses numerical grid. It has been applied to many problems of geomaterial since it was proposed for the first time. The authors focus on the robustness of the method under large deformation problem and applied it to the shallow foundation problem of geomaterial. In this paper, the formulation and implementation of Material Point Method are described, followed by verification and validation for the implemented code. Then, the parametric investigations on ground behavior under shallow foundation have been carried out.