UNIT – IV

Shallow Foundations - Types - choice of foundation – location and

depth - safe bearing capacity – shear criteria – Terzaghi’s, and IS

code methods - settlement criteria – allowable bearing pressure

based on SPT N value and plate load test – allowable settlements

of structures.
Foundation:
Foundation is the lowest part of a structure which provides a support
for the super – structure and transmit the loads (live load, wind load)
on the structure Including the dead weight of the structure itself to the
soil below.

Foundation Soil or Bed:

The soil or bed to which loads are transmitted from the base of the
structure .
Footing:
The portion of the foundation of the structure, which transmits loads
directly to the foundation soil.
As an approximate criterion, Terzaghi’s definition that a shallow foundation is one
which is laid at a depth Df not exceeding the width of the foundation, that is
Df
 1  Shallowfoundation
B
Shallow Foundation are constructed
Df In open excavations and the disturbance
 1  15  Moderatelydeep of soil is minimal.
B
Df
 15  DeepFoundation
B
Types of Shallow Foundations:

1. Strip Footing or Continuous footing : (L>>B)

Commonly used below walls

2. Spread Footing:

Square or circular in section. Commonly used below column.

Df

B
Spread Footing
Continuous footing
Raft or Mat Foundation: Which covers the entire area of a structure
The choice of a particular foundation depends on:

 Magnitude of loads

 The nature of the sub-soil data

 The nature of the super structure and its specific requirements

 Cost of the foundation

 Availability of equipment
General Requirements of Foundations:

For a satisfactory performance, a foundation must satisfy the

following two basic criteria.

(a) Shear failure criterion or Bearing capacity criterion

(b) Settlement Criterion

Various Definitions:

Bearing capacity:

The load carrying capacity of foundation

soil or rock which enables it to bear and
transmit loads from a structure.

Gross Pressure Intensity (q):

Is the total pressure at the base of the footing due to the weight of the
superstructure, self weight of the footing and the weight of the earth fill if any.

Net Pressure Intensity (qn) :

It is defined as the excess pressure, or the difference in intensities of the

gross pressure after the construction of the structure and the original overburden
pressure. Thus if D is the depth of the footing.

qn = q -ɤD
 Ultimate Bearing Capacity qu or qf:

The maximum gross intensity of loading that the soil can support before it fails in
shear is called the ultimate bearing capacity (qu).

Net Ultimate Bearing Capacity (qnu ):

Is the maximum net intensity of loading at the base of the foundation that the soil
can support before failing in shear.

qnu q u D
Net Safe Bearing Capacity (qns):
Is the maximum net intensity of loading that the soil can safely support without
the risk of shear failure .

qnu
qns 
F
 Safe Bearing Capacity (SBC): (qs ):
The maximum pressure which the soil can carry safely without risk of shear
failure is called the safe bearing capacity.

qnu
qs  qns  D   D
F
Net safe Settlement Pressure ( qnρ ):

It is the net pressure which the soil can carry without exceeding the allowable
settlement:

Net Allowable Bearing Pressure ( qna):

It is the net loading intensity that can be imposed on the soil at which neither the
soil fails in shear nor there is excessive settlement to the structure.

qna  qns ifqns  qn or qna  qn ifqn  qns

Bearing Capacity of Shallow Foundations:

Principal Mode of Soil Failure:

 Load settlement behavior of a soil is found to be related to the soil

characteristics.

 The soil zones involved in generating resistance to foundation load – that is

responsible for bearing capacity have been identified qualitatively.

Three different types of failure mechanism based on the pattern of the shearing
zones have been identified as;

1. General Shear Failure

2. Local shear failure

3. Punching shear failure

1. General Shear Failure:

Is characterized by

 A well defined failure pattern

 A sudden, catastrophic failure accompanied by tilting of foundation

 A bulging of ground surface adjacent to the foundation

QU

Load-settlement curve
The load settlement curve indicates that failure is abrupt in the
general shear mode.

The ultimate load can be easily located.

 This type of failure is the only one amenable to analytical

treatment

General shear failure occurs in dense or stiff soils of relatively low

compressibility.
2. Local Shear Failure

In this mode a large deformation takes place under the footing before the
development of failure zones, i.e. large vertical settlement takes place before
slight bulging of the ground surface.

 well defined wedge and slip surfaces only beneath the foundation

Tilting of footing is not expected.

Ultimate load is not well defined in local shear failure.

It takes place in moderately compressible soils or loose sand i.e occurs in soil
of high compressibility. (ex. Medium dense and medium stiff soils)

The bearing pressure at which the first yield takes place is referred to as the
first-failure pressure or first failure load.
3. Punching Shear Failure:

Occurs in soils possessing the stress-strain characteristics of a very plastic soils.

Typical features of this failure mode are

 Poorly defined shear planes

 soil zones beyond the loaded area being little effected and

 Significant penetration of wedge shaped soil zone beneath the foundation,

accompanied by vertical shear beneath the edges of the foundation

 The load settlement curve indicates a

continuous increase in settlement with
Increasing load, ultimate load cannot be
Clearly recognized.
B*=B for circular (diameter)
or square ft .

B* = 2BL/(B+L) for rectangular ft.

It is difficult to define the limiting conditions for which general or local shear
failure should be assumed at a given site. However the following points nay be
used as a guide:

1. Stress – strain test (c-ø soil): General shear failure at low strain, say < 5% ,
while local shear failure, stress strain curve continues to raise at strains of 10
to 20%
2. Angle of shear resistance (ø) : for ø > 360 general shear failure: ø >280 local
shear failure.
3. Penetration Test: N >= 30 General shear failure and N<= 5 local shear failure

4. Plate Load test : Shape of the load settlement curve decides whether general
or local shear failure

5. Density Index : Dr > 70% General shear failure

Dr > 20% Local shear failure

For purely cohesive soils, local shear failure may be assumed to occur when the
soil is soft to medium, with an unconfined compressive strength qu <= 10 t/m2
Factors Affecting Bearing Capacity :

1. Nature of soil and its physical and engineering properties

2. Nature of the foundation and other details such as the size, shape, depth

below the ground surface and rigidity of the structure

3. Total and differential settlements that the structure can with stand without
functional failure

4. Location of the ground water table relative to the level of the foundation and

5. Initial stresses if any

Methods of Determining Bearing capacity:

 Bearing capacity tables in various building codes

 Analytical methods

 Plate bearing tests

 Penetration tests

 Model tests and prototype tests

 laboratory tests

A number of analytical approaches based on the work of Rankine, Fellenius, Housel,

Prandtl, terzaghi, Merhof, Skempton, Hansen and Balla.
Terzaghis Analysis:

Assumptions:

Terzaghi (1943) used the same form of equation as proposed by Prandtl (1921)
and extended his theory to take into account the weight of soil and the effect of
soil above the base of the foundation on the bearing capacity of soil.

Terzaghi made the following assumptions for developing an equation for

determining qu for a c-ø soil.

(1) The soil is semi-infinite, homogeneous and isotropic,

(2) the problem is two-dimensional,
(3) the base of the footing is rough,
(4) the failure is by general shear,
 Contd..

(5) the load is vertical and symmetrical,

(6) the ground surface is horizontal,
(7) the overburden pressure at foundation level is equivalent to a surcharge load
q0 = ɤ Df where ɤ is the effective unit weight of soil, and Df , the depth of
foundation less than the width B of the foundation,
(8) the principle of superposition is valid, and
(9) Coulomb’s law is strictly valid, that is,

 f  c   tan 
 TERZAGHI’S ANALYSIS:

The loaded soil fails along the composite surface GFCDE. This region can be divided
into five zones: Zone I, zone II (2 no.) and Zone III (2 no.)
Zone-I remains in a state of elastic equilibrium and it acts as if it were part of the
footing
Zone –II called the zone of radial shear
Zone-III is called the zone of linear shear also called Rankines Passive zone. The
boundaries of Zone – II rise at 450-ø/2 with the horizontal.
The load intensity qu on the footing tends to push the wedge of the soil ABC into
the ground with lateral displacement of Zones –II and III, but this lateral
displacement is resisted by forces on the plane AC and BC. The forces are:
(i) The resultant of the passive pressure Pp
(ii) The cohesion C acting along the surface AC and BC
At the instant of failure V = 0
Downward forces (i) qu B
(ii) weight of wedge ABC = ¼ ɤ B2 tanø
Upward forces are (i) Pp on each of surface AB and AC

(ii) The vertical component of cohesion on each surface

of length AB=AC= {B/2}/cosø

B
 2C  2c 2 sin   cB tan 
cos
Hence,

1
qu B  B 2 tan   2 Pp  cB tan 
4
Or
1
qu B  2 Pp  cB tan   B 2 tan 
4
The resultant of passive earth pressure Pp can be divided into three components
(i) Ppr due to weight of shear zone BCDE
(ii) Ppc produced by soil friction (cohesion)
(iii) Ppq produced by surcharge
 1
 qu B  2( Ppr  Ppc  Ppq )  cB tan   B 2 tan 
4

1
 qu B  (2 Ppr  B 2 tan  )  (2 Ppc  cB tan  )  2 Ppq
Or 4

1 1
Let 2 Ppr  B 2 tan   B BN 
4 2
2 Ppc  cB tan   BcN c

and 2 Ppq  BDN q

 qu  cNc  qN q  0.5BN ------ (1)

where q = ɤD and

Nc, Nq and Nɤ are called bearing capacity factors (dimensionless) Depends on ø

value
For Purely cohesive soils, bearing capacity is given by

qu  cN c  DN q
qu  5.7 N c  D

Because for cohesive soils ø =0, then Nc = 5.7; Nq = 1 and Nɤ = 0

For smaller values of ø: Nc > Nq > Nɤ

For higher values of ø: Nc < Nq < Nɤ

Modification for square and circular footing:

The yield zones occurring in the soil beneath a footing of square or circular shape
are three-dimensional unlike a strip footing where the deformation is basically
two dimensional.

Hence equation 1 does not apply directly.

Terzaghi gave the following approximate equations

Local Shear Failure:

Equation 1 is applicable for general shear failure, however it can be

modified for local shear failure as follows

 qu  cm N c 'DN q '0.5BN '

Where cm is equal to 2/3 c and Nc’ , Nq’ and Nɤ’ are the bearing
capacity factors for reduced ø value to øm

tan øm = 2/3 tanø

a

ɤ1
b

ɤ2
c
Effect of Eccentricity of Loading:
Meyerhof introduced the concept of useful width to compute the bearing capacity
when the resultant load on the footing acts eccentrically with respect to the center
of the footing.

to account for the eccentricity of loading, the footing dimensions are modified in
such a way that the load becomes concentric to the reduced dimensions of footing .
 qu  cNc  qN q  0.5BN
IS code recommendations for Bearing Capacity:

IS 6403-1981 recommends that for the computation of the ultimate

bearing capacity of shallow foundation in general shear failure

qnu  cNc sc d cic  D( N q  1) sq d qiq  0.5BN s d i W '

Where,
Nc, Nq and Nɤ are called bearing capacity factors recommended by
Vesic (1973)
S, d and İ are shape, depth and inclination factors as given
below.
The factor W' takes into account, the effect of the water table. If the water table is
at or below a depth of Df +B, measured from the ground surface, =1. If the water
table rises to the base of the footing or above, =0.5. If the water table lies in
between then the value is obtained by linear interpolation.
qu

q a qu
q
q

q
Numerical:
A square footing 1.8 m x 1.8 m is placed over loose sand of density
16kN/m3 and at a depth of 0.8 m. The angle of shearing resistance is 300
Nc = 30.14; Nq = 18.4 ;Nɤ = 15.1. Determine the total load that can be carried
by the footing.

Numerical :
What is the ultimate bearing capacity of a square footing resting on the surface of
a saturated clay of unconfined compressive strength of 1kN/m2 ?
Numerical:
Determine the allowable gross load and the net allowable load for a square footing
Of 2 m side and with a depth of foundation of 1.0 m. Use Terzagh’s theory and
assume local shear failure. Take a factor of safety of 3.0. The soil at the site has
ɤ = 18kN/m3 , c’ =15kN/m2, ø’ =250.

Numerical :
Plate Load Test
The object of a plate load test is to obtain a load settlement curve of a soil at a
Particular depth.

Loading device: (1) Gravity Loading

(2) Reaction Loading (Truss)

Settlements are recorded by using Dial gauges

Reaction Loading
Gravity Loading
Plate:
Rough mild steel plate 30 cm, 45 cm, 60cm or 75 cm size square in shape and 25
mm in thick.

Smaller sizes are used in dense or stiff soils and larder sizes in loose or soft soils.

PIT: pit of dimension not less than 5 times width of the plate is excavated up to the
proposed depth of the foundation. Test plate is seated at the centre over a fine
sand layer of maximum thickness 5mm.

Loading:
A seating load of 70 gm/ cm2 is first applied and released after some time.
Loads are applied on the test plate in increments of one fifth the estimated safe
load up to failure or at least until a settlement 25mm has occurred which ever is
earlier. At each load, settlement is recorded at time intervals of 1, 2.25, 4, 6.25, 9,
16 and 25 minutes and there after at intervals of one hour.

For clay soils the load increment after 24hrs.

For other soils load is increased when the rate of settlement drops to a value less
than 0.02 mm/min
The bearing capacity of footings in sands varies with the size of footing
Terzaghi and Peck have recommended that the settlement of a footing on a
cohesion less soil can be extrapolated from the settlement experienced by a
test plate at the same load intensity by the following equation

 f  B f ( B p  0.3) 
  For sandy soils
 p  B p ( B f  0.3) 

Where  f = settlement of foundation of B in mm

f

 p = settlement of plate of Bp in mm

Bf = size of proposed foundation in mt.

Bp = size of the plate in mt.

Bp
 p  F For clay soils
Bf
 For c-ø soils Housel suggested the following equation

Q  Am  Pn
Where
Q= Total load on bearing area
A = Contact area of footing or plate in m2
P = Perimeter of footing or plate in m
m and n are experimental constants.

Numerical:
Plate load tests were conducted in a c-ø soil on plates of two different sizes and the
following results were obtained

Load size of plate settlement

40 kN 0.3 mx 0.3 m 25mm
100kN 0.6mx0.6m 25mm

Find the size of the square footing to carry a load of 800kN at the same specified
Settlement of 25mm
Plate 1

Q  Am  Pn
40 = (0.3x0.3)m + (4x0.3)n ----- eq.1

Plate 2

100 = (0.6x0.6)m + (4x0.6)n ----- eq.2

From 1 and 2

m = 111.11 kN/m2
n = 25 kN/m2

Let B be the size of the footing

800 = (BxB) m + 4B n = ( BxB )111.11 + 4B x 25

B= 2.4 m.
Limitation of Plate Load Test:

The plate load test has the following limitations:

(1) Size effect :

The results of the plate load test reflect the strength and the settlement characteristics
of the soil within the pressure bulbs. As the pressure bulb depends upon the size of the
loaded area, it is much deeper for the actual foundation as compared to that of the
plate. The plate load test does not truly represent the actual conditions.
(2) Scale effect:

The ultimate B.C. of saturated clays is independent of the size of the plate but for
cohesionless soils, it increases with the size of the plate. To reduce scale effect, it is
desirable to repeat the plate Load test with two or three different sizes of plates and take
the average

(3) Time effect:

A plate load test is a test of short duration. For clays, it does not give the ultimate
settlement. The load- settlement curve is not truly representative.
(4) Reaction load:

It is not practicable to provide a reaction of more than 250 kN. Hence, the test on a plate
size larger than 0.6 m width is difficult.

(5) Water table :

The level of W. T. affects the bearing capacity of the sandy soils. If W.T is above the level of
the footing, it has to be lowered by pumping before placing the plate.
(6) Interpretation of failure load:

The failure load is not well-defined except in the case of a general shear failure. An error of
personal interpretation may be involved in other types of failure.
Bearing capacity of Granular Soils based on
Standard Penetration Test value:

Teng has developed the following empirical equation for the net ultimate bearing
capacity of footing on granular soils.

For continuous or strip footing:

qnu 
1
60
3N 2 BRw  5(100  N 2 ) D f Rw
2 1
 In t/m2

For square and circular footings:

qnu 
1 2
30

N BRw  3(100  N 2 ) D f Rw
2 1
 In t/m2

If Df >B use Df = B
Settlement of Shallow Foundations:

The total settlement can be divided into tree categories:

1. Immediate or elastic settlement

2. Primary Consolidation: computed from Terzaghi theory of consolidation

3. Secondary consolidation

Total vertical settlement

st  si  sc  ss
t/ m2