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Footings
16-1 INTRODUCTION
Footings and other foundation units transfer the loads from the structure to the sO'~
supporting the structure. Because the soil is genera1ly much weaker than the
columns and walls that must be supported, the contact area between the soil and ;;;...
ing is much larger than that betWeen the supported member and the footing.
The more common types of footings are illustrated in Fig. 16-1. Strip footing
footings display essentially one-dimensional action, cantilevering out on each si&:
wall. Spread footings
the column
column. These distribute the load in two directions. Sometimes spread footm;
pedestals, are stepped, or are tapered to save materia1s. A pi/e cap transmits the coi::..cto a series of pi/es, which, in tum, transmit the load to a strong soil layer at sorn=
below the surface. Combined footings transmit the loads from two or more colurm:
soil. Such a footing is often used when one column is c10se to a property line. A m...~
fOlmdation transfers the loads from all the columns in a building to the underlying
foundations are used when vel)' weak soils are encountered. Caissons 2 to 5 ft in
are sometimes used instead of piles to transmit heav)' column loads to deep foun~
ers. Frequently, these are enlarged at the bonom (bel/elf)to apply load to a larger ~
The choice of foundation type is selected in consultation with the geotechrn........
neer. Factors to be considered are the soil strength, the soil type, the variability c~
type over the area and with increasing depth. and the susceptibility of the soi: ""
~
building to deflections.
Strip, spread, and combined footings are considered in this chapter since ~
the most basic and most common t)'pes.
16-2
786
~0n
/
(b) Spread
'OO;,"g
/'
---
-(f) Cambined
'OC' .~
788
Chapter 16
Fig. 16-2
Pressure distribution under
footings.
Footings
displace laterally when the footing is loaded, causing a decrease in soil pressure ::edges. On the other hand, the pressure distribution under a footing on clay is s~
Fig. 16-2b. As the footing is loaded, the soil under the footing detlects in a bO\\h
depression, relieving the pressure under the middle of the footing. For design pu~
is customary to assume that the soil pressures are linearly distributed in such a wa: ~~
resultant vertical soil force is collinear with the resultant downward force.
Design Methods
Allowable Stress Design
There are two different philosophies for the design of footings [16-1], [16-2].The 5:--lowable stress design. Almost exclusively,footing design is based on the allowable.
acting on the soil at unfactored or service loads. For a concentrically loaded spread - ,
'i,Ps ::5 %A
where
Ps is the specified (unfactored) load acting on the footing. Section 2.4.1 of "-.:.
gives an updated set of load combinations for allowable stress design [16-.?
Comrnittee 318 has not considered these for footing design as yet.
qa is the allowable stress for the soil given by (16-3), presented in the next suh
Limit-States Design
The second design philosophy is a limit-states design based on factored loads and ;....
resistances [16-1], [16-2], given by
where
cf>is a resistance factor to account for the variability of the load-resisting ~of the soil under the footing.
RII is the engineer's best estimate of the resistance of the soil under the foon:-;
CI'is a load factor.
Ps is the specified load acting on the soil at the base of the footing.
The load factors, CI',in (16-2) are those used in building design. Two sets of loa:! and load combinations are available for design, those in ACI 318-02, Sections 9.2 .L~-
or thoseinACI318-02,AppendixC. Resistancefactorsfor limit-statesdesignof are still being developed. Current estimates of cf>values for shallow footings are as-
Section 16-2
4>
789
= 0.5
for sliding resistance dependenton friction, with cohesion equal to zero, 4> = 0.8
for sliding resistancedependent on cohesion, with friction equal to zero, 4> = 0.6
Serviceability limit states should also be checked [16-1], [16-2], [16-3].
At the time of writing, virtually all building footings in North America are designed
by using allowable-stress design applied to failures of the concrete foundation element or
the soil itself (16-1). The rest of this chapter will apply allowable-stress design to the soil
and then use ultimate-load
concrete foundation
structure.
= qult
FS
( 16-3 )
where qult is the stress corresponding to the failure of the soj) under the footing and FS is a
factor of safety in the range of 2.5 to 3. Values of qa are obtained from the principles of
footing.
790
Chapter 16
Footings
geotechnical engineering and depend on the shape of the footing, the depth of ~
Elastic Distribution
The soil pressure under a footing is caIculated by assuming linearly elastic actioc ::"
pression, but no tensile strength across the contact between the footing and the sc~
column load is applied at, or near, the rniddle of the footing, as shown in Fig. :-_
stress, q, under the footing is
P
q=-j;-A
Centroidal axis
Fig. 16-4
Soil pressure under a footing:
loads within kem.
My
I
Section 16-2
791
where
P
A
I
M
y
calculated
The moment, M, can be expressed as Pe, where e is the eccentricity of the load relative to the centroidal axis of the area A. The maximum eccentricity e for which (16-4) applies is that which first causes q = O at some point. Larger eccentricities will cause a
portion of the footing to lift off the soil, since the soil-footing interface cannot resist tension. For a rectangular footing, this occurs when the eccentricity exceeds
(16-5)
This is referred to as the kern distance. Loads applied within the kern, the shaded area in
Fig. 16-4c, will cause compression over the entire area of the footing, and (16-4) can be
used to compute q.
Various pressure distributions for rectangular footings are shown in Fig. 16-5. If the
load is applied concentrically, the soil pressure q is qavg = P / A. If the load acts through
the kern point (Fig. 16-5c), q = Oat one side and q = 2qavgat the other. If the load falls
outside the kern point, the resultant upward load is equal and opposite to the resultant
downward load, as shown in Fig. 16-5d. Generally, such a pressure distribution would not
be acceptable, since it makes inefficient use of the footing concrete, tends to overload the
soil, and may cause tilt.
792
Chapter 16 Footings
q = PIA = qavg
q < PIA
q>
PIA
q = 2qavg
P
I.
I
Resultant 01 loads
on the looting.
q > 2PIA
Fig. 16-5
Pressures under an eccentrically loaded footing.
Resultant 01
soil pressures
/'
Sections 9.2 and 9.3 and the traditional ACI load and resistance factors in Append..
the 2002 code, both sets of load and resistance factors are acceptable for desig::
ACI318.
The first three examples in this chapter are based on the load and resistance
in ACI 2002 Sections 9.2 and 9.3. Example 16-4 uses the factors in ACI Appende: :
2 ft of soil
@ 120 Iblft3
793
240 Iblft2
300 Iblft2
540 Ib/ft2
Gross soil
pressure =
540 + qn Ib/ft2
{i i i i i i i i
qn = PclA
by an equa!, but opposite, upward pressure. As a result, the net effect on the concrete footing is zero. There are no moments or shears in the footing due to this loading.
When the column load Pc is added, the pressure under the footing increases by
qn
= PclA,
ferred to as the gross soU pressure and must not exceed the allowable soil pressure, qa'
When moments and shears in the concrete footing are calculated, the upward and downward pressures of 540 psf cancel out, leaving only the ne! soUpressure, q", to cause internal forces in the footing, as shown in Fig. 16-6c.
ln design, the area of the footing is selected so that the gross soUpressure does not
exceed the allowable soil pressure. The flexural reinforcement and the shear strength of the