Influence of a Thin Horizontal Weak Layer on the Mechanical Behaviour of Shallow Foundations Resting on Sand
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The authors have adequately addressed the reviewer's comments.
Author Response
Please see the attached file.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The authors have not responded satisfactorily to my comments, therefore, my decision remains the same to reject the paper for publication.
Author Response
Please see the attached file.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
The reviewer is interested in this manuscript. However, it is currently insufficient as an academic paper, and the reviewer would like to make the following comments, which are the minimum required for an academic paper, as conditions for acceptance.
(1) Fig. 3: The authors should indicate the size in the figure.
(2) Figs. 5, 7, 8, 12: The authors should provide an legend for each contour diagram.
(3) The authors should properly itemize their conclusions.
(4) The authors should enhance the introduction. At present, the quantity is too small.
(5) The authors should set up new chapter 2 to review previous and related studies.
(6) The authors should clarify the reliability of the analysis results performed. This is to compare the results of this analysis with the results of the experiment.
(7) There is a large contrast in the volume of each chapter as a whole, so the authors should elaborate on the analysis conditions and so on.
Author Response
Please see the attached file.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 4 Report
This paper has significant content copied from other papers and internet sources. Self-plagiarism should be avoided as well. I will review this paper after major rephrasing and rewriting to avoid plagiarism.
Maurizio Ziccarelli, Marco Rosone. "Stability of Embankments Resting on Foundation Soils with a Weak Layer", Geosciences, 2021
Author Response
Please see the attached file.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
The authors have not responded satisfactorily to my comments, therefore, my decision remains the same to reject the paper for publication.
Reviewer 3 Report
This manuscript has been appropriately modified for reviewers' suggestions and comments.
The quality of figures and tables has also improved significantly.
The reviewer decides that this manuscript has been accepted for publication.
Reviewer 4 Report
This paper still contains significant similarities from two sources including a published paper from the same authors. I am not about the uniqueness of the research. I noticed significant very similar texts/sentences from published papers/report that is not acceptable. The paper still needs significant rephrasing or rewriting.
This manuscript is a resubmission of an earlier submission. The following is a list of the peer review reports and author responses from that submission.
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The paper is about an interesting topic, but I have serious doubts if the paper is enough for being published in the Journal. My main concern is that the introduction indicates: “In this regard, Valore et al., 2017 [25] studied the mechanical behaviour of shallow footing resting on sand, considering the presence of a thin horizontal weak layer within a 1g physical model. The authors found that the weak layer affects both the failure mechanisms and the bearing capacity value when the depth of the weak layer is lower than 3÷4 times foundation width B.” and this is one of the main conclusion of the paper. In this sense, the paper only confirm some conclusions of a previous paper written by one of the same authors of this paper. The state of the art is not very complete, with a lot of references of papers of the authors of the manuscript. On the other hand, the paper is not clearly explained, and more information should be given. More cases should be included, not only to study up to zi/B=3.
Reviewer 2 Report
The study numerically examined the effects of thin weak soil layer on shallow foundations. In addition to the depth and strength of the weak layer, it seems that the strength of the foundation soil plays a noticeable role in affecting the shallow foundation failure mechanisms and bearing capacity. It’d be interesting to see a figure that shows the effects of the foundation soil strength.
Some editorial comments are listed below:
Page 1 abstract: please change “four times the footing with” to “four times the footing width”
Page 2: please change “The footing is width B” to “The footing has a width B”
Page 10: please change “located at a high depth” to “located at a great depth”
Reviewer 3 Report
The study investigated the influence of a possible thin horizontal weak layer on the mechanical behaviour of shallow foundations over sand. We appreciate the simulation effort. However, the manuscript failed to present a new contribution to the existing knowledge. Only two studies from 2017 were reviewed in this manuscript and it is not clear what is the update in the scientific literature in the following 4 years. In addition, there are numerous of simulation studies on this topic and the manuscript failed to critically review them to derive the gaps in the existing knowledge and to demonstrate how the current study is relevant and important. In the result and discussion section, findings and some conclusions were supported and justified with references of 50 to 100 years old, which clearly show the lack of the up-to-date literature. The study also failed to critically compare the finding with the previous laboratory results to validate such simulation. Finally, most of the figures have poor quality and it seems they have been cropped from the original images.
In general, the manuscript looks like a conference paper and it needs major improvement to be considered as journal paper.
