The design of shallow foundations at the ultimate limit state is conventionally performed assuming a foundation structure that does not undergo any yielding, although current technical standards require the investigation of any possible rupture mechanism, including combined rupture in the soil and in the foundation structure. The aim of this work is to study the practical implications of including the analysis of combined rupture mechanisms (involving both soil and foundation structure) in shallow foundation design under drained and undrained conditions within the framework of current technical standards. Two case studies are presented and tackled with a recent novel strategy for numerical simulations. It is shown that conventional foundation design methods may not be reliable when evaluating internal actions within a spread foundation, hence foundation yielding may not be correctly detected, implying that the bearing capacity of a foundation can be severely overestimated in conventional practice, in particular under drained conditions. On the other hand, foundation yielding can be exploited to reduce the amount of needed reinforcement, while still satisfying both geotechnical and structural technical standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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