Raft or Mat Foundation

A Raft or Mat Foundation is a kind of combined footing that may cover the entire area under
the structure supporting several columns in one rigid body. It commonly supports all types of
structures. A mat foundation is a large concrete slab that supports column or line loads that are
not all in the same straight line. Types of mat may be;
(i) thin (less than 1 ft thickness) for supporting light structures on firm soil. These
foundations usually support light and intermediate structures on and near the ground
surface in unstable soil areas such as expansive and collapsible soil. Thin mats are
often reinforced with stiffening beams and placed on compacted non-expansive low
plasticity fill to reduce differential movements.
(ii) ribbed or reinforced with cross beams for supporting light structures on
heaving/shrinking and compressible soil
(iii) thick for supporting heavy multi-storey structures. It is the most common engineered
mat foundations for multi-storey heavy structures consist of flat 2 to 8 ft thick mats
with continuous two-way reinforcement top and bottom.
(iv) Inverted with stiffening cross-beams on top if the soil is especially soft

The mat foundation is usually preferred instead of spread footings to increase efficiency
and economy of excavation and construction when the spread footings are large and closely
spaced in one direction and require more than half of the construction area. By combining all
individual footings into one mat, mat foundations reduce pressure on the supporting soil
thereby reducing total and differential settlement and often increasing total bearing capacity.
Mats are especially useful in supporting structures on deep swelling or consolidating soil and
fill that cannot be economically supported by pile or drilled shaft foundations. The weight of
the superstructure on mats can balance hydrostatic uplift pressure. Mats may be square or
rectangular shaped for supporting buildings or circular shaped for supporting chimneys, silos,
and water tanks.
 Figure. Thin Mat on Firm Soil

Figure. Stiffened Mat on Heaving/Shrinking Soil

Figure. Thick Mat

Figure. Inverted Mat

Design Considerations

If weight of the excavated soil is equal to the weight of the structure and that of the raft,
and the centers of gravity of excavation and structure coincide, settlement would be negligible.
If the columns are equally spaced and loads are not very heavy, a raft may be designed as having
uniform thickness. The conventional design of such a raft consists of establishing its dimensions,
from which the soil pressure at various locations beneath the slab may be computed. The raft is
divided into a series of continuous strips centered on the appropriate columns and rows in both
directions. The shear and bending moment diagrams may be drawn using continuous beam
analysis or coefficients for each strip. The steel requirements will vary from strip to strip. This
method gives a conservative design since the interaction of adjacent strip is neglected.

Figure. Mat Foundation with equally spaced columns

 If the columns are equally spaced and their loads are equal, the pressure on the soil will
be uniform, otherwise moments of the loads may be taken about center of the base and pressure
distribution determined. Since the equations for this are usually derived for a rigid member and
a raft in general is not a rigid member, the pressure and resulting internal stresses may be
seriously in error if the eccentricity is very large. The weight of the raft is not considered in the
structural design because it is assumed to be carried directly by the subsoil. Alternatively, rafts
may be thickened at the column locations for economy and depth should be made sufficient to
resist shear. A ribbed raft foundation consists of a slab acted upon by upward soil pressure at its
underside and supported by beams from column at its top which balance the upward pressure
with downward column loads. It is a similar to a floor slab resting on a system of beams and
columns.

Design Procedure

1. Determine the line of action of the resultant of all the loads acting on the mat
2. Determine the contact pressure distribution
- If the resultant passes through the center of gravity of the mat, the contact pressure
is given by
𝐹
𝑓=
𝐴
- If the resultant has an eccentricity of 𝑒𝑥 and 𝑒𝑦 in the x and y direction
𝐹 𝑀𝑥 𝑀𝑦
𝑓= ± ±
𝐴 𝐼𝑥 𝐼𝑦
The maximum contact pressure should be less than the allowable soil pressure.
- Divide the slab map into strips in x and y directions. Each strip is assumed to act as
independent beam subjected to the contact pressure and the column loads.
- Determine the modified column loads.
- Draw the shear force and bending moment diagrams for each strip.
 - Select the depth of mat for shear requirement.
- Select steel reinforcement for moment requirement.

Figure. Position of the eccentricity 𝑒𝑥 and 𝑒𝑦

https://theconstructor.org/structural-engg/design-of-raft-foundation/3212/
https://falmatasaba.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/design-of-mat-sd.pdf
http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a216450.pdf