In construction, the foundation is an integral part of a structure and its function is to transfer the building loads safely into the ground and to keep the settlement within permissible limits. Here, soil is an essential component of the earth's surface that transfers building load through the foundation. Generally, different foundations are adopted depending on the different soil conditions and number of floor loads to be transferred to the deeper strata. Therefore, improving the bearing capacity of soil by experimental stabilization achieves better strength at required shallow depth. This paper develops an improved bearing capacity for shallow foundations on clays considering actual soil constitutive behavior. The geopolymer-stabilized soil specimens were synthesized and characterized with compressive strength testing and effective soil stabilizer for clay soils.

The paper investigates the hysteretic behavior of the semirigid steel beam-column connection due to cyclic loading. Three different models with end connections are modeled for the analysis using ABAQUS software: Model 1 with extended end plate connection without column stiffeners; Model 2 with extended end plate connection with column stiffeners; and Model 3 with seat and cleat angle connection. The cyclic load is applied as per the loading protocol provided by the AISC seismic provisions. The results represent the hysteretic behavior of the connections. The area of the hysteresis curve of each loading cycle provides the dissipated energy at each cycle of loading. The addition of the stiffness to the connection against cyclic loading results in change of behavior of the hysteresis curves, i.e., the behavior of hysteresis curves of model 2 and model 3 is stable compared to that of model l. The energy dissipation capacity of model 1 is less compared to that of model 2 and model 3, as the column stiffeners in model 1 and the outstanding legs of the angles in model 2 provide additional stiffness to the connection against cyclic loading. The stiffness of the connection starts degrading after each cycle of load.

In construction, the foundation is accountable for effectively transferring the load of any structure to the subsoil, based on the soil's bearing capacity and settlement. Hard strata are frequently present at greater depths. Consequently, using a raft or piled foundation becomes a simple alternative. The raft foundation often compensates for low-bearing capacity, but for rafts bearing heavy loads, the settlements would exceed the permitted limitations. A raft may be supported on piles in order to control excessive settlements, and this type of foundation is generally known as Combined Piled Raft Foundation (CPRF). In this parametric study, an attempt has been made to analyze piled raft subjected to seismic loading conditions. The objective of this comparative study is to examine how the piled raft foundation behaves and performs when various factors such as pile diameter, pile length and modulus of sub-grade reaction of soil are altered, keeping thickness of raft and pile spacing to be constant. This aids in understanding the variation in total and differential settlement of the structure. ETABS and STAAD Foundation software were used to analyze the superstructure and substructure, respectively.