University of Warith Al Anbiya’a

College of Engineering
Civil Engineering Department
4th Year Class

Foundation Engineering I
Settlement of Shallow Foundation

Prepared by:
Dr. Hussein Hadi
PhD. In Geotechnical Engineering
Settlement of Shallow Foundations:
In general, the settlement caused in soil due to loading may be divided into three categories.
The shape of the plot of settlement (deformation) of the sample against time for a given load
increment is shown in Fig. below.
 From the plot, it can be observed that there are three stages which may describe as
below:
Stage I, Initial compression (immediate Settlement) ẟi: Which is mostly taking place during or
immediately after the construction of
structure (All soil Type).

Stage II, Primary Consolidation Settlement ẟc: Is the result of volume change of saturated
clayey soils due to the expulsion of water
occupying the void spaces at load
application.
Stage III, Secondary Consolidation ẟs: Occurs at the end of primary consolidation
settlement due to plastic re-adjustment of soil
fabric.

The total settlement = ( Elastic settlement + Consolidation settlement + Secondary settlement.

1. Immediate or Elastic Settlement (Si):Elastic or immediate settlement (Si) occurs directly
after the application of the load without change in the moisture content of the soil.
The magnitude of the elastic settlement will depend on the flexibility of the foundation
(flexible or rigid), and on the type of material (soil) that the foundation will rest on it (i.e. this
method is valid for both sand and clay).
Immediate settlement calculation is generally based on equations Derived from the theory
of elasticity as follow:
a- For foundation on deep clay layer ( Hc >2B ) immediate settlement is

I𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒐𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒆 (𝑫𝒇 = 𝟎)

𝑷
𝒒𝒐 = − 𝜸. 𝑫𝒇
𝑨

𝑭𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝑻𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆

I𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒐𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒃𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒆 (𝑫𝒇)

Typical Values of Elasticity (ES).

Typical Values of Poisson’s Ratio (ν)

 Solution
𝑳
𝑭𝒐𝒓 𝒄𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝟏. = 𝟏; 𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒆 : 𝑰𝑷 = 𝟏. 𝟏𝟐𝟐
𝑩
115 × 6𝑥1000
∴ 𝛿𝑖 = 1 − 0.252 × 1.122 = 29.03 𝑚𝑚
25𝑥1000
𝑳
𝑭𝒐𝒓 𝒄𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝟐 .
𝑩
= 𝟏; 𝒄𝒐𝒓𝒏𝒆𝒓 : 𝑰𝑷 = 𝟎. 𝟓𝟔1 𝒄𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝟏
115 × 6𝑥1000
∴ 𝛿𝑖 = 1 − 0.252 × 0.561 = 14.52 𝑚𝑚
25𝑥1000
𝑞
𝑭𝒐𝒓 𝒄𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝟑 . 𝛿𝑖 = 𝑛𝑒𝑡 1 − ν2 × ෍ 𝐵 × 𝑰𝑷
𝐸𝑆

Part BxL L/B No. B Ip B.Ip.No.

𝒄𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝟐
1 4x4 1 1 4 0.561 2.244
2 2x4 2 2 2 0.766 3.064
3 2x2 1 1 2 0.561 1.122
෍ 6.43
𝑞𝑛𝑒𝑡 𝟏𝟏𝟓
∴ 𝛿𝑖 = 1 − ν2 × ෍ 𝐵 × 𝑰𝑷 = (𝟏 − 0.252 ) × 6.43𝑥1000
𝐸𝑆 𝟐𝟓𝟎𝟎𝟎
∴ 𝛿𝑖 = 27.73 𝑚𝑚 𝒄𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝟑
Solution

𝒒𝒏𝒆𝒕
𝜹𝒊 = 𝟏 − 𝝂𝟐 × 𝑰𝒇 × ෍ 𝑩 × 𝑰𝑷
𝑬𝑺

Part BxL L/B No. B Ip B.Ip.No.

1 8x10 1.25 1 8 0.62 4.96
2 (-) 4x4 1 1 4 - 0.561 -2.244
Ʃ 2.716

7500
𝑞𝑛𝑒𝑡 ( − 3 × 15)
∴ 𝛿𝑖 = 2
1 − ν × 𝐼𝑓 × ෍ 𝐵 × 𝐼𝑃 = 64 1 − 0.32 × 0.9556 × 2.716𝑥1000 = 𝟏𝟏. 𝟑𝟔𝟔 𝒎𝒎
𝐸𝑆 15000
b- Immediate Settlement of a thin Layer 𝑯𝒄 ≤ 𝟐𝑩:
In most cases, in practice the soil deposit will be of limited thickness and will be underlain by a
hard stratum (e.g. bedrock).
• For cases where the layer thickness is less than 2B,
• and where Poisson’s ratio approximately equal to 0.5,
the following solution may be used:

Where
• 𝝁𝒐 depends on the depth of embedment and
• 𝝁𝟏 depends on the layer thickness and the shape of the loaded area. Values of the coefficients
𝝁𝒐 and 𝝁𝟏 are given in Figure 6.59.
Immediate Settlement of a thin Layer can be neglected
in the following cases:-
1. 𝐵 > 4𝐻c
2. Top layer(𝐻𝑇) > 2𝐵
3. The clay layer lies between two strong layers
Worked Example: A flexible foundation of dimensions 12x8 is required to transmit a uniform
contact pressure of 160 kN/𝑚2 at a depth of 1.7m below the ground surface. A layer of sandy
clay is located between 5 and 10m below the ground surface foe which Eu= 35MN/𝑚2 ,
γ=19kN/𝑚3 , and ν=0.3.Determine the average amount of immediate settlement that is likely to
occur due to elastic compression of the clay layer.
2. Consolidation Settlement (Sc):
Consolidation settlement occurs in saturated clayey soils when they are subjected to increased
load caused by foundation construction. The final consolidation settlement can be calculated
using any of the following expressions:

For Normal Consolidated Clay (N.C.C):

Which represent the clay at which the existing effective overburden pressure (P'0) is the largest
stress experienced by the soil at the present time and in the past thus:
For Over Consolidated Clay (O.C.C):
Represent the clay which has experienced a stress in the past larger than the existing effective
overburden pressure (P'0) acting at the present time. The max. past effective overburden
pressure is called pre-consolidation pressure
Rate of Consolidation:
Degree of Consolidation:
  U 
2

Tv    U  60%
4  100 
Tv  1.781  0.933 log100  U  U  60%
Figure: Consolidation Ratio as function of
depth and time factor
3. Secondary Settlement (SS) (creep):
The rate of secondary consolidation may be expressed by the coefficient of secondary
compression index, (Cα) which can be determined from the slope of the straight line portion of
e-log P curve. Compression is expressed in terms of decrease in void ratio and time has been
normalized with respect to the duration (tp) of the primary consolidation stage.

eo= void ratio at the end of primary

consolidation stage.
tp= time at the end of primary
consolidation settlement (start
secondary consolidation
settlement).
t=any time after beginning
secondary consolidation
settlement.
the value of Cα is depend on type of Tv  1.781  0.933 log100  U 
clay (N.C.Clay or O.C.Clay or
Organic clay) and there is a
typical values for each type.
Methods used for Determination Vertical Stress Increase (ΔP):
1- Stress due to uniformly loaded rectangular area, it gives the stresses below the corner of
rectangular area by using Fadum chart to find (IR) which is a function of m=B/z and n=L/z.
ΔP = q * IR
2- Stresses due to uniformly loaded circular area:

Where : r = is the radius of the footing.

3. Approximate method (2:1 Method): (2 Vertical to 1 Horizontal)

32