eng Science and Education Publishing American Journal of Civil Engineering and Architecture 2328-3998 2017-02-05 5 1 8 16 10.12691/ajcea-5-1-2 AJCEA2017512 article Faris R. Ahmed faris.rashied@koyauniversity.org 1 Kamaran K. Hamad 2 Zahraa N. Rashied 3 Civil Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Koya University, Erbil, Kurdistan Region, Iraq Survey Engineering Department, Collage of Engineering, Salahaddin University, Erbil, Kurdistan Region, Iraq Geotechnical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Koya University, Erbil, Kurdistan Region, Iraq This paper presents a nonlinear finite element modeling and analysis of the punching behaviour of reinforced concrete footings. The foundation system was modeled using ANSYS software. Several experimental tests were collected from literature to support the software outputs. The deflection in the footing's concrete has been studied, marking the cracking patterns under column, and computing the failure loads for each footing. The experiments results were compared with the finite element results obtained from the modeled footing. The results indicated that the punching behaviour obtained from the analytical model using ANSYS software give good agreement with the experimental data with conservative difference of about 10 percent. Also, results of column`s punching shear capacity, using a number of codes of practice, were presented in this paper and compared with both experimental and the finite element results. http://pubs.sciepub.com/ajcea/5/1/2/ajcea-5-1-2.pdf punching shear stresses comparative analysis footings finite element analysis ANSYS