## 6 Summary and Conclusions  
This paper focused on predicting the compression load-settlement relationship of soft clay soil under a rigid foundation by dimensionless pi (\(\pi\)) terms determined by the MATLAB program. For that purpose, a series of dimensionless terms were first produced via this program for the relevant problem by employing [PERSON]'s pi (\(\pi\)) theorem. This theorem is often employed in other engineering fields [22; 23; 24; 25; 26] but has rarely been used for applications in geotechnical engineering. Secondly, the results of a small-scale physical test reported in the literature that investigated the load-settlement relationship of soft clay soil under a rigid foundation subjected to compression load were verified with the finite element method. Thereafter, the small-scale problem was scaled up 10 times using dimensionless terms, and the compression load-settlement relationships for the large-scale cases were investigated with both dimensional analysis (DA) and the validated finite element method (FEM).  
* A useful MATLAB program that determines the dimensionless pi (\(\pi\)) terms, regardless of the number of variables involved in a problem, was constructed. The program will help those who desire to determine the dimensionless pi (\(\pi\)) terms belonging to problems they are addressing.
* The finite element model, which is considered to demonstrate the effectiveness of dimensional analysis, produces results that are quite compatible with the physical test results reported in the literature.
* Dimensional analysis produced reasonably successful outcomes that are compatible with the validated FEM when considering the number of physical variables taken into account in DA, and this compatibility is higher with relatively smaller diameters of foundation (e.g., Cases 1 to 5) and slightly lower with relatively larger diameters of foundation (e.g., Cases 6 to 10). The effectiveness of DA completely depends on the physical variables chosen by the user. The mechanical behaviour of the soil depends highly on stress levels and should be provided between the model and prototype. Thus, the plan is to ensure this criterion between model and prototype while selecting the variables, and the variables selected in this study to investigate the compression load-settlement relationship of soft clay soil under a rigid foundation were compression load, settlement, thickness of the foundation, area of the foundation, vertical stress under the foundation, diameter of foundation, and gravity. If these physical variables belonging to the problem are increased and the intrinsic properties of soil and foundation are included, the effectiveness of the proposed method will likely improve.  
* In summary, when considering the computational ease of DA in this study, employing this as an alternative method can be beneficial to give a preliminary idea of the compression load-settlement behaviour of soft clay soil under a rigid foundation.  
This research received no external funding.  
Not applicable.  
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.  
The author declares no conflicts of interest.