The present work addresses the problem of maximizing a structure load-bearing capacity subject to given material strength properties and volume constraint. This can be viewed as an extension limit analysis problems which consist in finding maximum load for fixed geometry. We show that it is also closely linked minimizing total under constraint carrying loading. Formulating these topology optimi...

In recent years, determining bearing capacity of piles from in-situ testing data as a complement to static and dynamic analysis has been used by geotechnical engineers. In this paper, different approaches for estimating bearing capacity of piles from SPT data are studied and compared. A new method based on N value from SPT is presented. Data averaging, failure zone and plunging failure of pil...