Ring footings can be more effective and economical than circular footings. In spite of similarities between circular and ring footings, their behaviors are different in some respects such as bearing pressure distribution under the footing and settlement. But no exclusive theoretical prediction of ultimate bearing capacity has been reported for ring footings. In the present study, stress characteristics method is employed for coding the bearing capacity of ring footing with horizontal ground surface. In the calculations, friction at the contact between the soil and foundation is considered. In this research, the soil obeys the Mohr–Coulomb yield criterion and that is cohesive–frictional-weighted with applied surcharge pressure. The bearing capacity factors Nγ, Nq and Nc for ring footings were calculated by a written code based on the method of characteristics. Bearing capacity was determined for different conditions of soil and different ratio of radii in comparison with the principle of superposition results. The findings show that the principle of superposition is effective for determining the bearing capacity of a ring footing.

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